*****WARNING: MAY CAUSE BOOK HANGOVER*****

This book was absolutely fantastic and I'm sorry I waited so long to read it. It was on my summer reading list in high school, but there were so many good ones on the list that summer that I opted for one of the others, though I can't remember which. After finally picking it up, I'm sorry I did.

The characters come right off the page and, before long, begin to feel like old friends. So much so, in fact that the closer you get to the end, the less you want to read because you know that your time with them has almost come to a close.

Golden did a beautiful job of combining historical elements with the little known background and day to day life of Geisha even if, by many accounts, there are inaccuracies. Sayuri (Chiyo) is a whirlwind of emotions and, despite the average person not actually having anything directly in common with her, she is painfully relatable in so many ways. You can't help but adore her. It definitely makes me feel worse that she and Pumpkin couldn't mend their friendship, but clearly cattiness is something that crosses cultures.

Without a doubt, I would strongly recommend this novel to anyone and everyone. It's got a little bit of everything: romance, deception, war, art, family, despair. There's a little something for everyone. ( )

My friend Robin sent this book to me shortly after I moved to Tokyo. It was hard to find English-language books at first, so she sent me a couple to keep me reading. I probably would not have been interested in Memoirs of a Geisha had I not just moved to Japan. But I found it to be one of the best books I've ever read.

When I first started reading the book, I wanted to see what Sayuri looked like, so I did a Google search. It was then that I realized the book I was reading was not a biography, but fiction. Had me fooled! Still, it's easy to imagine that it is a true story. Even though I've only lived in Tokyo for about two months, I see how all of this story could be completely true.

I love Golden's characters! Pumpkin is so funny. Some of the lines he gives her crack me up! And Sayuri, of course, is an incredible character. Through her stories I laughed and even cried a couple of times. The stories themselves were so plain, just as Japanese people truly speak. The fact that an American man wrote this (and I believe it was his first novel) still amazes me. You'd swear it was really the memoir of a geisha.

Several nights in a row I stayed up reading until 5am. I just couldn't get enough of this book. I guess partly because of the story, but also in part because there's a little bit of Sayuri in each of us. ( )

I had seen [b:Memoirs of a Geisha|930|Memoirs of a Geisha|Arthur Golden|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388367666l/930._SY75_.jpg|1558965] described many times as the “Perfect Novel” and one of the 100 books you should read before you die, so perhaps my expectations were a little height for this one as I was expecting an emotional read and a novel that would transport me in time and enlighten me to mystery of the Japanese culture of the time but sadly this story while good and well written was too slow moving and an unemotional read for me

I had been wanting to read this novel for years and they say “what’s for you won’t pass you by” so when I found this one in a used book shop I felt it was time to finally take this one home. It has been loved by so many of my friends over the years and I really was intrigued by the the lives of Geisha.

TBH I actually thought this was a true story and only realised about 30% into the book that it was a fictional account. The novel tells the story of a fictional geisha working in Kyoto, Japan before, during and after World War II. I loved the first first 100 pages of this novel, the story starts out strong and the characters and culture is intriguing. I enjoyed the slow pace (to start with) but then the book just seemed to drag and become dreadfully descriptive and I found myself page counting and wishing the the novel was 100 pages shorter.
I enjoyed the characters to begin with and yet by the end I was very glad to part company with them.

The book does offer a fascinating glimpse into the hidden world of the Geisha and this was an aspect of the novel that I really enjoyed and the reason I rated this one 3 stars (which means I liked it but didn't love it) but I am afraid this copy will make its way back to the used book shop and hopefully another reader will enjoy the experience more than me. ( )

Received this as a BookCrossing book from an online friend, and I’m pretty sure that I never would have read it otherwise. It turned out to be pretty good, though.

I’m not wild about storytelling frames, and I went back and forth on this one. For most of the book it was bothering me, but as she enters the upheavals of WWII, there was something a little reassuring about it. Then again, that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Aside from the frame, there were some things I really liked and others I really didn’t. It’s a deeply anti-feminist book, in a way. Namely: It seems to me to be a book about how cruel women can be to each other, and how far above it all men are. You might say that that’s inherent in the content, but I don’t necessarily think that it is. There aren’t any real bonds among the girls/women in this book, other than the one counterexample of the protagonist and Mameha. Every other female-female relationship is based on greed, suspicion, revenge, desperation, or outright cruelty. The relationship between men and women, on the other hand, was probably dictated by content. Though it would have been nice to see expectations overturned at least a little bit. The protagonist spends her whole life waiting for a man to save her. Save her from what? Mostly, it seems, from having to live her own life.

Which brings me to my biggest complaint about the book: Does Chiyo/Sayuri ever actually do anything proactive to further her own cause? I can only think of one thing, and she completely bungles that in a way that any second-grader would have known to avoid. Other than that, she spends the length of the novel as a leaf on the wind, while everyone around her—geisha and non-geisha alike—is working to create some kind of life for him or herself. Part of what bothered me about the frame was that I knew she was going to come out all right in the end, and frankly I didn’t see why she should. I kept waiting for her to do something, and kept getting disappointed.

OK, so enough about what I didn’t like. I did enjoy the book, believe it or not. Mameha was interesting, as were several other minor characters. But mostly, Golden is quite a writer. There are a couple of spots in the book where the protagonist remembers back to other times in her life, and at those spots I became really aware of just how well the author had described those other times. I could really see and hear everything, both large and small details. That takes some real talent, I think, and some real work. He did a hell of a job. ( )

Absolutely loved this book! The combination of the characters, the narrative, the history and the culture was intoxicating. I still remember it so well despite reading it nearly twenty years ago. Probably in my top ten novels of all time. ( )

I liked this book more because of it's characters than the story. Story was nice but characters held all the attention. I really liked Hatsumomo as antagonist. Mameha - rivalry of Hatsumomo and savior of Sayuri -was great in whole book. Sayuri's struggle and her journey from small fisher village to Kyoto's successful Geisha amazingly described. The tension between Sayuri and Hatsumomo made it more interesting. The tradition of geisha and their life-style was well written.
In terms of love triangle, I felt it slow and tiresome. Really!! a top most Geisha of Kyoto can't just go to a person she love and tell him that she wish him to be her 'danna'!!
Overall it was nice read. Pour tea in cup, take the book and read. ( )

An excellent, compelling read. ( )

The most fascinating thing about this book was easily the level of historical detail it incorporated. The story and characters didn't always captivate me, but somehow I had trouble putting it down and not reading one more paragraph (which without fail became two more chapters). The language and metaphors were beautiful and only added to the presence of the time and place.

The ending took me by surprise; I could hardly finish the last couple chapters because I just knew it was going to end horribly. I still haven't decided whether it fit or not. The stream-reaching-ocean metaphor is somehow not very Western, where I think we don't (reflexively, at least) believe in fate. ( )

This is a book to be revisited in the future. There is more depth here than can be taken in with just one reading. A fictional memoir of a girl growing into womanhood like Jane Eyre, but in an eastern culture and different time period.

The only drawback I had, was at times I think the language reflected a more modern American instead of an historically accurate portrayal of a geisha during the 1930s of Japan.

I understand why this book is on the top 100 for Great American Read. ( )

A great story and a great insight into changes world. Really well written. ( )

The easy-to-read way that this book was written had me absolutely convinced that the story was true. It wasn't until finishing it this morning and reading the author's notes that I realized it was just a wonderfully written piece of pure fiction! (Feeling a little disappointed now!) It's been a really long time since I have enjoyed a book so much. ( )

While I did enjoy reading this book, it didnt quite meet my expectations. I liked getting insights to the culture and the history but the characters and the story line didn't really do much for me. ( )

I was totally enthralled with this book. The story was so well developed and I learned so much about geisha rather than the stereotypes I had only known until then. ( )

I'm tired of hearing that one can't tell it's written by a middle-aged white man. ( )

I kept hearing that I should read it. I had no interest in the subject, but figured I'd give it a try. I immediately liked the narrator's voice. One page, two, three, and before I knew it, I was through the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would read it again. ( )

I loved Memoirs of a Geisha, but maybe not for the reason most people loved it.

I remember seeing this book out everywhere years ago, and then the movie poster was everywhere in my city too. Over the years, I pondered picking the book up but just never came across it in my travels. And then recently, I found it at a charity bookstore and decided to take the plunge.

I liked the storytelling itself and how the book was written. Arthur Golden's writing style worked well for me and I was hooked on every page. I wanted to know how the characters were doing and how they would end up. Supposedly, this book is very deep and has meaning, but I saw it just as a story in a very different world than the one I live in. I was intrigued by the life of a geisha and hoped for a happy ending. I was surprised that the ending was so... simple. I thought it might change or be quite epic, but it just ended in a very 'blah' way for how well the book pulled me in.

Despite this book being extremely slow and the exact opposite of what I liked, it really worked. I couldn't put the book down. I'm surprised by this but also quite impressed. It takes a very special writing style to hold me when the book is very slow.

I'm sure this book isn't purely accurate but I still enjoyed it. Taking it as a story, it was an interesting read. I'll definitely be wanting to find some books on geisha written by Japanese and Asian writers in the near future.

Four out of five stars. ( )

Originally published in 1997. This is a novel based on true facts of what it was like to grow up and become a geisha in Japan in 1920's and 1930's. I was impressed that the author, being a man, could have so many thoughts as a woman. Arthur Golden has the most beautiful writing style which flows so easily and is also very visual.

I watched the movie many years ago and am ready to watch it again after finally reading the book. My friend, Happy, had even gifted me a bottle of perfume named after this book and movie, which I didn't care for too much. But it was the thought that counted. ( )

Did a man really write this? Amazing. ( )

If you want to learn about geisha, don't read this. Read "Geisha, a Life" by Mineko Iwasaki. It's by someone who actually was a geisha, not a foreigner who made up most of what he knows and mixed a bunch of professions and gave a largely male gazy book to us. Iwasaki's novel reads much better, is very accessible, is a joy to read and very invested in women's issues, family issues, politics, education, passion, and overall just a lot of great stuff. Now THAT I'd love to see made into a movie.

Now I love beautiful prose. I love books that make me think about things. Golden certainly has the gift for writing beautifully and poetically. But I feel at times that this novel kind of went a bit too far with that. All that beautiful prose that the movie has (most of which is not actually in the book), is quadrupled, and then quadrupled again. After a while, it makes the book feel heavy and I actually skipped a bit because wow it dragged after a bit. Sayuri gives one long-winded metaphor thought after another, and it's like some heavy-handed lesson that doesn't seem to teach you more as time passes.

I also understand that this is supposed to be fictionally auto-biographical, but I was left with a couple questions about it that I think could have been easily answered. For instance, Golden never really touches on how the wives of the men who visit geisha feel about their husbands' interactions, especially if these men become danna and thus end up with mistresses, perhaps more than one at a time. Or if these wives are given the same opportunity to be with another man other than their husband. Knowing as much history as I do, I think that the wives a) just dealt with their husbands adultery and went on with their lives because they PROBABLY had no choice in the matter, and b) did not have the opportunity to be adulterous on their own time for the same reason they probably had no say in their husbands' adulterous actions. They were probably severely punished, and perhaps labelled as criminals if they were caught with men who weren't their husbands or perceived as adulterous.

But at no point does Sayuri think on this. We never meet the Chairman's wife. He never speaks about her. He does speak about his children, though. We only really meet two wives: one who is dead, and whose passing is used as a way to better connect to an old man Sayuri knows, and a wife who demonstrates that she knows about her husband's actions. Sayuri is supposed to be caring, or maybe she isn't. Maybe she's just self-absorbed. In the end, she doesn't leave Japan because she feels uncomfortable around the feelings of the Chairman's wife. She leaves because the man he wants to adopt feels uncomfortable with her presence as a possible roadblock to his success. She isn't hidden where she is because the Chairman wants to keep her from his wife (although I suppose this was always underlying there somewhere). She's hidden because he wants to keep her presence and their relationship from Nobu, the Chairman's business partner and friend.

We get so intimate in these character's lives. We learn about how they treat periods, sex, and the actions before, during, and after sex, the significance of dirty hair, abortions, mistresses, prostitution... but we don't learn about something like this? ( )

A costo di fare la figura dell'idiota, confesso che fino alla fine avevo talmente "suspended disbelief" che pensavo fosse realmente una storia vera.
Che botta l'"Anche se" della postfazione :/Comunque splendido libro, regalato per caso. Per tutti quelli che hanno (o cui piacerebbe avere) molta acqua nella propria personalità :) Peccato per quell'orrendo film... ( )

Just absorbing each and every detail that golden supplied in this book astonished me and really opened my eyes. ( )

If you've watched the movie 1st, the movie did a very good job at keeping it to the story, but reading the book will give you more info and more depth to her story.

Read this book! You will NOT be disappointed!! ( )

Could only manage a few bland, vague-for-effect chapters. Reading up on Golden's apparent misappropriation of a famous geisha's story completed the turn-off. Was time to move on. ( )

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Me "Kujtimet e një geishe" ne hyjmë në një botë ku pamja e jashtme ka vlera të jashtëzakonshme, ku virgjëria e një vajzë i jepet si mall ankandi atij që ofron më shumë, ku gratë sterviten të mashtrojnë burrat me të pushtetshëm dhe ku dashuria ndëshkohet si iluzion. Është një vepër letrare e papërsëritshme dhe shumë e suksesshme e stilit fiction - romantike, erotike dhe që të mban në ankth.