nekokat reviewed Memoirs Of A Geisha A Novel by Arthur Golden
Review of 'Memoirs Of A Geisha A Novel' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A fascinating glimpse into a particular world, a particular time and place... and the writing was lovely, very evocative, with the first-person narrative giving it a storytelling cadence that just draws you in.
But, it wasn't always pleasant to read about a woman who never has any control over the events that shape her life, from beginning to end... besides which, the ending seemed a little too pat and really strained my suspension of disbelief. It's also hard to put myself in her shoes, especially when she throws away her friendship with a man she genuinely likes, in order to have a chance with the man she has idolized since childhood but barely knows.
Also deserves a trigger warning for some pretty rape-y scenes, though I suppose if you pick up a book about a geisha, well... Everything about Sayuri's life involves coercion of one sort or another.
In the …
A fascinating glimpse into a particular world, a particular time and place... and the writing was lovely, very evocative, with the first-person narrative giving it a storytelling cadence that just draws you in.
But, it wasn't always pleasant to read about a woman who never has any control over the events that shape her life, from beginning to end... besides which, the ending seemed a little too pat and really strained my suspension of disbelief. It's also hard to put myself in her shoes, especially when she throws away her friendship with a man she genuinely likes, in order to have a chance with the man she has idolized since childhood but barely knows.
Also deserves a trigger warning for some pretty rape-y scenes, though I suppose if you pick up a book about a geisha, well... Everything about Sayuri's life involves coercion of one sort or another.
In the end, Pumpkin (who I liked for the whole book) unexpectedly betrayed her (a conflict which was never mended), Mameha turned out to have helped her because the Chairman asked her to (though I like to think they were really friends in the end), and Nobu never forgave her the transgression she set up in order to avoid becoming his mistress. So she really had only the man whose mistress she became, and from her description of their interactions, it's hard to think that he really knew her, either.
I just read on Wikipedia that one of Golden's sources later sued him for defamation of character, and wrote her own autobiography. Might have to read that next.