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Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden


Kell

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Thread here

 

Kay, if you can't see a thread, just go to the 'search' link at the top, put the main words in (in this case; 'memoirs geisha') and you should find every thread with the words in question.

 

This book gets mentioned a lot - it's exceptionally popular :welcome:

 

Wonder if a mod will now merge this.

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  • 1 year later...

I keep running into this book in one of my favorite charityshops and I always pick it up and wonder whether I should buy it. But it's like 4 euros or so and I'm used to getting my books cheaper, and this one's really not on my TBR so I hesitate and then I hesitate some more and always end up putting it back :) I hope you enjoy the book! (And I hope that if it's any good the book hasn't disappeared from the charityshop by then...)

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I did the exact same thing.. picked it up and put it down for months! I found it today for $1USD so I figured I might as well get it.. I'm probably not going to find it for a better price than that! :)

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I've had this book for over a year and not gotten around to reading it, not sure why, I love Geisha's, but I think I just have so many other books I want to read more, so I never bother with it, I'm determined to read it by the end of the year though! :) Hope you enjoy it Bethany!

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I read this about 10 years ago, and thought it was a very good book indeed. I do, however, remember enjoying the first half of the book slightly more than the second, as I felt the descriptions of the training and early life of the main character as a Geisha were extremely interesting.

 

For some reason, whether it was my naivety as a reader back then or not, I'm not sure, but I was about three quarters of the way through the book before looking at the cover and realising it was actually written by a male author. I thought the voice of the female character was truthful and convincing, and very well written overall.

 

In fact, seeing this thread has reminded me of the book, and I wonder why I never bothered to look for any more books by the same author! I'm off to do that now ...

:)

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I read this a fairly long time ago & loved it. Just googled it & found an article on Wikipedia & saw this bit:

"Controversy

After the Japanese edition of Memoirs of a Geisha was published, Arthur Golden was sued for breach of contract and defamation of character by Mineko Iwasaki, a retired geisha he had interviewed for background information while writing the novel. The plaintiff asserted that Golden had agreed to protect her anonymity, due to the traditional code of silence about their clients, if she told him about her life as a geisha. However, Golden listed Iwasaki as a source in his acknowledgments for the novel, causing her to face a serious backlash. She even received death threats.[1]. Arthur Golden of his behalf countered that he had tapes of the conversations [2]. Eventually, in 2003, Golden's publisher settled with Iwasaki out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.

Iwasaki later went on to write her own autobiography, an account different from Arthur Golden's novel, thus proving that Golden's was a work of fiction and not based on Iwasaki's life. The book was published as Geisha, a Life in the U.S. and Geisha of Gion in the UK."

 

I think I must go find this book & see what it is like compared to Memoirs of a Geisha!

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I wrote my dissertation on women in China 1845-1926 by looking at literature and history. Originally though I wanted to look half at Chinese women and half at Japanese women - just so I could fit geisha in. I read Memoirs of a Geisha in preparation and then never used it. However, I was really glad I did because it's super! I'd encourage anyone to give it a go because despite being written by Golden who's a man writing about a) a completely different culture and :) about a world which is entirely female he's really convincing and as it's something which I've researched it's accurate.

 

If you enjoy that I'd recommend Liza Dalby's Geisha. It's a true story about a western woman who went to Japan to "become" a geisha.

 

x

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Iwasaki later went on to write her own autobiography, an account different from Arthur Golden's novel, thus proving that Golden's was a work of fiction and not based on Iwasaki's life. The book was published as Geisha, a Life in the U.S. and Geisha of Gion in the UK."

 

I think I must go find this book & see what it is like compared to Memoirs of a Geisha!

 

I read Memoirs of A Geisha a few years ago and couldn't put it down! It was brilliant!

 

I'm definitely adding this book to my 'must buy asap' list. :)

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