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    Memoirs of A Geisha
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    Memoirs of A Geisha
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    Memoirs of A Geisha
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    Memoirs of A Geisha

    Written by Arthur Golden

    Narrated by Elaina Erika Davis

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. Sayuri's story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. It concludes with World War II when the geisha houses are forced to close and Sayuri reinvents herself and finds a rare kind of freedom on her own terms.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 5, 2000
    ISBN9780739300558
    Unavailable
    Memoirs of A Geisha
    Author

    Arthur Golden

    Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Golden attended Harvard University where he studied art history, specialising in Japanese Art. He went on to Columbia, earning a master’s degree in Japanese History and spent a summer studying in Beijing and working in Tokyo. Inspired by his interest in Japanese culture and history, Golden wrote the bestselling Memoirs of a Geisha over six years, seeing it finally published in 1997. In 2005 it was made into a feature film, garnering three Academy Awards.

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    Reviews for Memoirs of A Geisha

    4/5

    11,269 ratings291 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Memoirs of a Geisha is Arthur Golden's debut (and so far only) novel. Sakamoto Chiyo was born in a small insignificant fishing town, but grew up to become Nitta Sayuri, a very successful and prominent geisha. The novel recounts the story of her life as she tells it, from being sold into virtual slavery, her grueling training and struggle to become recognized, to her eventual success. I was rather disappointed and felt cheated by the ending, feeling that it was forced. For the most part, however, I very much enjoyed this book. Experiments in Reading
    • 5/5
      Pseudomemoir of a Japanese Geisha during and pre-WWII in Kyoto, Japan.
    • 4/5
      Really interesting - would recommend
    • 1/5
      A girl is sold into slavery.1/4 (Bad).I stopped after 100 pages, bored. The prose style is completely void of personality. It's written by an academic who has very obviously studied The Novel, knows how to communicate clearly in writing, but is not a writer. In 100 pages, there were maybe three sentences that had any spark of life in them.
    • 4/5
      Loved the story
    • 3/5
      it was slow in the beginning but good story
    • 5/5
      Most sickening book ever, just saying. But I really liked it, and I liked how it was from Chiyo's point of view even though I usually don't like first person perspective. Not a fan of Nobu, it seemed like for a while they were trying to make him out to be this nice guy who had a tortured soul or whatever, but I'm not buying it. He was a horny old man who wanted to get with a 15 year old (and continued to want her till she was old) and then just sorta threw a temper tantrum when she behaved how she was trained: high end prostitute. Not that I liked Chairman any better. He just backed of with the child molesting for his molester buddy. I liked Granny. And the dog. And the crazy artist. I wasn't fooled by all these pedophiles, that poor girl had such a hard life.
      That poor girl her only bright spot was that an even creepier old man would love her... How miserable.
      I loved the way they explained them getting ready! I saw that in the movie before I read it and it was my favorite scene, and I think that it was my favorite part of book too. It was really cool being able to see the way they lived.
      Also I found it sad the way America came in a ruined her society, not that it was like the best situation for people, but it had an elegance that got polluted when America came in.
      One more thing! I completely loved Chiyo's original name (Chiyo ha ha) and refused to think of her by her new name. (even though I know that's who she was now, I just liked Chiyo better)
    • 4/5
      Finally read this book and really enjoyed it. Time to watch the movie now!
    • 3/5
      It's not my usual cup of tea, and although I'd heard from multiple sources that it was a wonderful book, I was still mildly surprised by how much I liked it. The descriptions were original and enthralling, and the range of characters were deftly portrayed. It's a long book, but it drew me in so hard and fast that I whipped through it in under a week.

      There was one point where I threw down the book in disgust (almost literally), but it had nothing to do with the writing or the story The story's climax involves the main character doing something unkind to someone who had helped her immeasurably over the years because she's in love with another man, and I grew so angry with her as she considered whether she was 'capable' of betraying a friend--it was clear at that point to me, as the reader, that she was plenty capable of it and I felt that she was simply trying to convince herself and the reader that she was more innocent than she actually was. It drove me so crazy I actually put the book aside for several days before I could return to it.

      All in all, however, it was a fantastic and engaging read. Very recommended.
    • 4/5
      Lush, vibrant, and filled with gorgeous details. Arthur Golden does a phenomenal job of bringing a geisha's life to the imagination. We see this world through the blue-grey eyes of Chiyo, from her early days as a poor fisherman's daughter to her life as an apprentice under Mother and to her retirement in New York City. Exquisite and full of such vivid characters, such as the cruel Hatsumomo, the kind Chairman, and the wise Mameha. I did feel as if the last few pages were a bit rushed, but I was still supremely entertained.. Let the book seduce you and you will not be disappointed.
    • 4/5
      A good read. Before this book, I had very little interest in Japanese culture, but I still found the book to be very interesting, and it was also fairly well-written. The author did a good job of creating a world that felt familiar even though it was so foreign.
    • 5/5
      It was beautiful, wonderful...all the adjectives used on the cover are true! Its written so beautifully, at times poetic & its full of wonderful Eastern imagery. Its such an education as well - I know so much about a time in history & the culture of that time that I was completely ignorant to before. Its so detailed, so well researched - it makes reading all the more fulfilling when you can see just how much effort an author has put into his work. The story itself is enrapturing, it could have been good without the wonderful writing that it is told with, but together they make this book a complete paragon. Everyone should read this book. And possibly see the film, but I haven't yet so I can't say!
    • 4/5
      I had wanted to read this book for a long time but for whatever reason kept putting it off. I am glad I finally got around to it. It was not at all what I expected. The story was told through the perspective of the main character, Chiyo/Saruyi, and it focuses on her journey in becoming a geisha. I enjoyed being immersed in a world I knew little about, and it was great to learn about the cultural norms in Japan in the first half of the 20th century.

      I would have liked it more if it had spent a bit more time talking about what was going on in 1930s Japan, but cannot fault the author for not writing about it as it would have taken away from the continuity of the story. My only real critique of the book is that I found the main character to speak in a voice that almost seemed childlike and never changed even as she got older. I know that she is telling the story as she looks back from a future date but it just seemed a bit off to me.
    • 4/5
      An engrossing story but Stepford wives come to mind - barbaric gender relations
    • 5/5
      A new 'classic'!
    • 4/5
      Fascinating.
    • 5/5
      Love this book.
    • 4/5
      This memoir is told from the point of view of a retired Geisha to an author. It is a Cinderella story with a nice ending. The selling of girls to servitude in a Geisha house when parents can no longer care for them. The work and hope of being able to become a Geisha in training and the fear of being sent to house of prostitution. I listened to the audio version which was nicely read with accent.
    • 5/5
      Like many people, I was obsessed with Japanese culture as a kid and read this book partially because of that. I grew up and grew out of my obsession, but then re-read this book in 2016. Here are my thoughts on it. I knew, going into it, that Arthur Golden was not an actual geisha, that he was an American man writing from the perspective of a Japanese woman, and a lot of people found this offensive. However, from the Acknowledgements section in the back of the book, it's evident that he did his research. The book was first published in 1997, and the book mentions research going as far back as 1992. This isn't the case of some fanboy writing shit just because he could. In my opinion.

      I also felt that the prose style was good. I liked the comparisons and I felt that in most cases they made sense. I liked the way Golden described the male customers best; you came away with a good idea of their personalities and their appearances. There was a wide variety there, which I appreciated since I think most of the writing done on Japanese culture often relies on stereotypes and only has like two archetypes of Japanese men (the Wise Old Man and the Hot Martial Artists). So it was nice to see writing that reflected a wider range of masculinity.

      I felt like the beginning and middle of the book was best. At a certain point, about the time Hatsumomo disappears, the book sort of drags on, and Sayuri's obsession with The Chairman becomes the main focus (moreso than at the beginning and middle, since at least then she was doing her apprentice training and going to parties). I thought the chapter taking place on the Amami Islands was fairly ridiculous, but maybe that was the point. I also really, as much as I empathized with Sayuri's character, couldn't take the way she treated Nobu. Becoming friends with someone is one thing, but leading them on for financial gain for fifteen years and then dropping them for their best friend is kind of shitty. I'm still giving this book five stars because it's the first book in a long time that I really really loved. It's a long book, over 400 pages, but I was so caught up in the story that I finished it in a short amount of time.
    • 4/5
      Quite a feat of historical immersion, conjuring up the world of a Kyoto geisha in the 1930s. But the tone fell somewhat flat for me, a methodical plodding from event to description to event with little liveliness or poetry. There's also a Dickensian/romance novel theme throughout: will the heroine find true love with her beloved Chairman, for whom she pines for about 400 pages? Guess. A pleasant read, but not my taste in historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      I read this book for pleasure and really enjoyed it. Very interesting to learn about how the Geisha lived and the struggles she went through before WWII.
    • 5/5
      This really was an amazing book. It makes you FEEL. I cheered for Suyin the entire time, hated the people she hated, loved the people she loved.

      The descriptions were very good at painting a picture of where she was. It's made me add Japan to my to see list (even if it isn't the same as it was in the 1930's).

      If you have any interest in the culture or history at all, definitely pick up this book.
    • 4/5
      A good read. Before this book, I had very little interest in Japanese culture, but I still found the book to be very interesting, and it was also fairly well-written. The author did a good job of creating a world that felt familiar even though it was so foreign.
    • 4/5
      Enjoy the book.
    • 5/5
      Incredible story
    • 5/5
      This is a very good book (better than the movie). I couldn't put this book down. I read it in a few days.
    • 3/5
      Memoirs of a Geisha makes for a good read: the writing is excellent, the characters are mostly realistic, and the story is cohesive and interesting. Of course, it is far too sensational to be anything but historical fiction – but Golden treats the subjects, the culture, and even the female point of view with respect. I’ve heard complaints that the pace was slow, but I think that’s part of the charm. It was not a slow read, and certainly not something I had to struggle to get through. My only complaint is that I picked it up expecting something far more biographical. This is probably for the best, since otherwise I might not have read the book at all.
    • 4/5
      A pleasure to read even though I had already watched the movie (which is, as always, nowhere as good as the book). Left me wanting to visit Japan.
    • 5/5
      Starts out with a young woman being sold by her father to this life, and how she turns into a leading geisha.Excellent book....allows you to experience how the geishas live and what their daily lives were like. You live the character's daily life and experience the feelings all these women have for each other including the tension and some tenderness.I think more so it was a wonderful love story.The movie was good, but the book was better.
    • 5/5
      An interesting insight into a part of Japanese culture that has been inaccessible to Westerners for so long.