Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha is set in Japan from The Great Depression through just after World War II. A young girl named Chiyo is sold into slavery and is moved to Kyoto, where she would be trained as a geisha. However, an older geisha is determined to destroy her. One day, a man notices Chiyo crying in the streets, inspiring Chiyo to become Sayuri, a remarkable geisha. The book is the story of her journey.
The most enjoyable part of the book is the gamesmanship between the warring geisha, Mameha and Sayuri against Hatsumomo. Mameha knows how to perfectly extract herself from situations gracefully, and she is a true chess player, always thinking a few steps ahead.
The book is to be commended for shedding more light on geisha as a culture. The women are entertainers, skilled in conversation, singing, dancing, and playing a musical instrument called the samisen. There are also certain hairstyles and clothing indicating different stages in the life of a geisha.
That said, the book has a particularly disappointing ending. For a book that spends entire paragraphs describing the embroidery on each Kimono, the ending is so rushed that you blink and you miss it. Moreover, the ending doesn’t make much sense either. It is a little too fairy-tale, in a world that is on the brink of obsolescence and collapse.
In the acknowledgements, Arthur Golden thanks Mineko Iwasaki, who is a real geisha. However, Iwasaki spoke to Golden on the condition of anonymity. She alleges that the book is her life’s story except that Golden falsely sexualized the book. Two years later, an out-of-court settlement was reached.
It is a good read, if you stay aware of the flaws.