Memoirs of a Geisha

I think I first heard of this book when it first came out, but I had the wrong impression. It actually is fictional, not a memoir.
There are two levels on which I care to write about this:
First of all, the book and history itself. It's fascinating, and it offers a lot of information on the mysterious world of the geisha. It has taught me a lot about geishas overal and prompted my researching to find out how much of it is actually true. It turns out that, for the most part, it describes well the overall life and circumstances of a training and working geisha.
Second, the book is very easy to read and sounds more like a true memoir than the novel that it actually is. It feels like a true representation of an honest person. The book has an honest and personal feel about it. Highly recommended!
(Further observations)
The relationships between all of the people involved are extremely complex and fluid, and the amount of trust individuals can have for each other can never be counted on. An individual could hope to be honest in all interactions, but the complexity of the society overall definitely shapes and colors everything.
I suppose that it is overall a romance, but not really. There is a long time love, but said love is not directly addressed until the end. How loves are expected and addressed are a unique and complex thing for geishas; love per se is not considered in their world. The one thing that appears to be assumed is that geishas are expected to have sex with their clients. This apparently is not necessarily standard – some did, some didn't. It definitely was not a default of all geishas.)

Standing in the line at the bookstore after exchanging a present, a trolley of audiobooks caught my eye. I'm always looking for commute material.

I picked this up. I had some interest in the book based on its popularity and the upcoming movie. But, not enough to read it with my lack of actual reading time. Trying to quickly read the cover, I thought I was picking up the unabridged edition. While there is an unabridged version, I picked up the abridged version. It was an alright price, but I prefer unabridged audiobooks. I can't tell the run time of this edition, it was approximately 3 hours or so.

Elaina Erika Davis did an excellent job with the narration. I would listen to more of her audiobooks and look into her other work as well. I felt like the narrator (first person, I story-telling) was really there, telling me her story. I withhold judgement on the accent used. I work with many non-native English speakers and find that most "typical" accents are not that typical. She used something that seemed like a typical Japanese accent speaking English.

The writing was less than spectacular. I can only assume that the chunks left out by the abridgement did add to the story. As often happens, the male author did not write a female very believably. She tended to be one-dimensional which you might expect from a Geisha, but we were reassured at the beginning that besides exotic beauty, this child was clever and had a good personality. I never did see it show anywhere in the story. There was a particular spot where I could not tell if the narrator was saying what was true, or what the person she was speaking to wanted to here. By the presentation, I am not sure the author himself knew what his character felt. While I'm no published author, I have written stories, and I know that the characters speak to you. You do know how they feel.

Overall, any inkling I might have had to want to see the movie is quashed. And, I'm glad I did not waste my rare reading time trying to slog through the print version. It was nice to listen to, but I doubt I could have read it.