The cover page of this book caught my attention. A beautiful Japanese maiden in her traditional dress looking naïve and demure. Man I was bowled over reading it. Never in my life have I read a more interesting book
Here goes its review…
Memoirs of a geisha by Arthur Golden is a scintillating narrative of the life of a renowned geisha born in a fisherman family and who moves on to be one of the top geishas of Gion after long years of struggle, sacrifices and hardwork..
Chiyo-san (the san is suffixed to a name to show one’s respect to the person) a little girl is sold to an okiya (a place where geisha live) to be trained to be a geisha. The members of the okiya specially Hatsumomo do their best to make life hell for her and to add on to this she tries to flee (which is a greater sin) because of which she continues to live like a maid.Her life takes a twist when Mameha-san a well known geisha offers to adopt Chiyo as her sister in order to defeat her rival Hatsumomo.
How Mameha adopts her and she comes up as a well known Geisha by the name Sayuri with her extraordinary greyish blue eyes, quick wit, kind heart, modesty and honest approach forms the crux of the novel. The story reveals the character of the lead role in such a subtle way that you don’t realize that you are forming a picture of Sayuri herself. It should be remembered that the story is in the form of a narrative and it is only through simple incidents and the way the narrator narrates her whole life that we come to deduce her characteristics.
The author excels in descriptions; be it of the geishas or the men or nature or the kimonos. The descriptions of people are funny and have a pinch of sarcasm to it and that of the kimonos is the best. One can almost see their beauty and exquisite designs in their mind’s eye.
The complicated subject matter is dealt with ever so slightly that it forms an inseparable combination of delicateness and details sans vulgarity. Not a word out of place, a sentence unnecessary. The sheer simplicity and innocence with which it is written makes the novel endearing.
If you ask me for my favorite quotes I would probably have to jot down the whole book but there is one particular paragraph that struck a chord in my heart and which I would like to share with you…
“Conspiring to make Hatsumomo suffer wasn’t the pleasure I might have imagined. I couldn’t help remembering one morning as a child when I was swimming in the pond near our tipsy house and suddenly felt a terrible burning in my shoulder. A wasp had stung me and was struggling to free itself from my skin. I was too busy screaming to think of what to do, but one of the boys pulled the wasp off and held it by the wings upon a rock, where we all gathered to decide exactly how to murder it. I was in great pain because of the wasp, and certainly felt no kindness toward it. But it gave me a terrible sensation of weakness in my chest to know that this tiny struggling creature could do nothing to save itself from the death that was only moments away. I felt the same sort of pity toward Hatsumomo.”
I could go on and on but let me leave it to you to revel in the book and in the Japanese culture that the author has delved deep into.