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Loading... Memoirs of a Geishapor Arthur Golden
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adorará Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se gostará deste livro.  dst2diva | Nov 2, 2009 |  This is the sort of book that draws you in from the very first page. As the title suggests, it is the story of Sayuri, sold by her parents at a young age to an okiya, a geisha house. Not only is it an engrossing story of suffering, longing, and triumph, it's also a fascinating look at the life of a geisha during the 1930s and 40s. The description of the places and characters was so vivid I could see it all. The whole concept behind a geisha - that having a mistress was not only acceptable but even expected of wealthy men - was somewhat jarring to my Western sensibilities, but the tale was told with such compassion and earnestness that it was easy to get drawn in to the different culture, and almost forget that it was written by a middle-aged American man and not an aged Japanese woman. There were things here and there that struck me as unrealistic - Nobu's interest in geisha despite finding them irritating, the pure malice of several characters - but by and large it was a great read. (  ) melydia | Oct 28, 2009 | "I wasn't born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha....I'm a fisherman's daughter from a little town called Yoroido on the Sea of Japan." Sayuri's voice is so authentic that this reads more like a biography than a work of fiction. Sayuri tells of being sold after the death of her mother when she was nine years old. Despite the harsh treatment she recieves, a chance meeting with the Chairman, who shows her kindness, makes her determined to become a geisha. Mameha, a famous geisha, mentors Sayuri mainly to get revenge on the head geisha in Sayuri's okiya, Hatsumomo. This brilliantly researched and beautifully written noveol is a must-read. (  ) mrsdwilliams | Oct 19, 2009 | Very engaging and captivating read. Not as entrancing after the war, and lost me a little towards the end. ( ) Amzzz | Sep 18, 2009 | kahlee2000 | Sep 14, 2009 |  sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
Amazon.com (ISBN 0679781587, Paperback)According to Arthur Golden's absorbing first novel, the word "geisha" does not mean "prostitute," as Westerners ignorantly assume--it means "artisan" or "artist." To capture the geisha experience in the art of fiction, Golden trained as long and hard as any geisha who must master the arts of music, dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival beauties, and cunning seduction of wealthy patrons. After earning degrees in Japanese art and history from Harvard and Columbia--and an M.A. in English--he met a man in Tokyo who was the illegitimate offspring of a renowned businessman and a geisha. This meeting inspired Golden to spend 10 years researching every detail of geisha culture, chiefly relying on the geisha Mineko Iwasaki, who spent years charming the very rich and famous.The result is a novel with the broad social canvas (and love of coincidence) of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen's intense attention to the nuances of erotic maneuvering. Readers experience the entire life of a geisha, from her origins as an orphaned fishing-village girl in 1929 to her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price as a teenager to her reminiscent old age as the distinguished mistress of the powerful patron of her dreams. We discover that a geisha is more analogous to a Western "trophy wife" than to a prostitute--and, as in Austen, flat-out prostitution and early death is a woman's alternative to the repressive, arcane system of courtship. In simple, elegant prose, Golden puts us right in the tearoom with the geisha; we are there as she gracefully fights for her life in a social situation where careers are made or destroyed by a witticism, a too-revealing (or not revealing enough) glimpse of flesh under the kimono, or a vicious rumor spread by a rival "as cruel as a spider." Golden's web is finely woven, but his book has a serious flaw: the geisha's true romance rings hollow--the love of her life is a symbol, not a character. Her villainous geisha nemesis is sharply drawn, but she would be more so if we got a deeper peek into the cause of her motiveless malignity--the plight all geisha share. Still, Golden has won the triple crown of fiction: he has created a plausible female protagonist in a vivid, now-vanished world, and he gloriously captures Japanese culture by expressing his thoughts in authentic Eastern metaphors. (retirado da Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:55 -0400) A primeira ronda de testes foi já encerrada. Visite o grupo Open Shelves Classification para mais informação. |
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The movie did this book very little justice except to give you a picture of the places where the story took place. However, the author described them in such detail that your imagination would have these places almost perfect anyway.