Another time, Another Place (Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden)

Member Name: michaird

Product:	Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Date:	14/12/02 (1394 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautifully written, Both a simple and rich story, Realistic

Disadvantages: None

I've not been very well today. I've not been well for a while, but shrugged it of with thoughts of more important things that needed doing and struggled along with my head feeling as thought it was filled with water. Yesterday however, the important things were all done, after dragging my poor body out of bed early enough to ring work and tell them in my best croaky 'I'm not very well' voice I slumped back into dream land for a few hours of much needed sleep.

Around midday I finally rose and after a good wash, a couple of slices of toast and a quick pootle on the computer I found myself feeling more than a little bored. Unable to face the mind numbing effects of daytime T.V and still not well enough to venture outdoors or engage in any physical activity I finally decided to settle down for the afternoon with a book.

I had been saving this one for a while, warned by friends that once begun it is impossible to put down I needed to pick a time when I would have the freedom to let the world pass by for long enough that I could immerse myself in it. Now seemed as good a time as any.

So it was at three o'clock this afternoon I settled down with a cup of tea, a few chunks of dairy milk and Memoirs of a Geisha. I cracked the spine of the book for the first time and stepped out of my living room in the Birmingham suburbs and into a Japanese fishing village in the early twentieth century.

The book recounts the story of Chiyo, born to a fishermen in a little peasant village the future of Chiyo and her sister Sastu is changed dramatically upon Chiyo's chance meeting with Mr Tanaka, a wealthy businessman. With their mother close to death and their father old and weak Chiyo's father is persuaded to secure their future by selling his daughters to an Okiya in Kyoto.

The Okiya is the place where geisha live and are trained, many from a very young age. Nine year old Chiyo, with her beauty and unusual bl
ue-grey eyes seems set to become a successful geisha while her much less attractive sister is sold into a very different sort of life.

From these humble beginnings Chiyo tells us the story of her life, her hopes and fears, trails and successes with such evocative colour and rich detail that you can almost see her world open in front of you. It tells of her training, her relationships, the changing of her name to Sayuri, her loves and betrayals. Chiyo is so very easy to empathise with, as a person she seems very real, almost tangible.

This books is unusual in that very little actually happens. That is to say there is no plot as such, there are no car chases no twists and turns, it is simply the story of someone's life. What makes it so fascinating is the world it takes us into is historically closed to many of us. The secret world of the geisha, considered by many westerners to be a form of glorified prostitution, is explored through Sayuri's experiences growing up and in adulthood. The mechanical aspects of the life as well as the world that lies beneath it, boiling in sensuality, are fully explored.

Certain events in Sayuri's life are most distasteful and disgusting, yet they're so beautifully handled that they simply don't evoke feelings of outrage. It really would spoil the story to tell you about them, but if you do read the book I think you'll know what I mean when you get there.

The writing style of the book is so easy to read and I found myself drinking up page after page. I read until my tea went cold, my chocolate went uneaten and suddenly I found that it was eight o'clock and I was being served my tea having not even noticed my other half return home. I read at the dinner table and on the toilet until and at around ten thirty I had literally consumed all 434 pages. I read quite fast anyway, but even I will usually stop for something to eat and a drink. By the time I had finished I was so t
hirsty my lips were dry and cracked and I had not even noticed.

The book makes you think. As I said previously many consider the Geisha to be glorified prostitutes and having read this book I am uncertain about whether I agree or not. Many of the people in the book are undoubtedly clever, strong and independent women yet their fortunes still rested almost entirely in the hands of wealthy men. They were still expected to be obedient to both their mothers (the owner of the Okiya) and the men which they entertained and became mistresses to. It seemed quite sad to me that it was seen as quite acceptable for a wealthy man to spend a large portion of their income on keeping a Geisha mistress, often with the full knowledge of his wife. Yet I am comparing things to my own cultural values in a completely different age and times were very different them.

I really enjoyed this book, it's so refreshing to read something so unusual and different. The richness and detail in which Sayuri's life is painted is even more impressive when you consider that she is not real. While the detail of the geisha life is taken from the memories of real geisha, Sayuri and her story are fiction.

How disappointed I was.


Oh, by the way, the publishers price is £6.99. I paid less than that, but I don't remember how much.

Summary: