Memoirs of a Geisha

A much better cover than the one I read.

Back cover: This is a rare and utterly engaging story. It tells the extraordinary tale of a geisha -- summoning up a quarter century, from 1929 to the post-war years of Japan's dramatic history, and opening a window into a half-hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation.
A young peasant girl is sold as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. She tells her story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Her memoirs conjure up the perfection and the ugliness of life behind rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the arts of geisha - dancing and singing, how to wind the kimono, how to walk and pour tea, and how to beguile the land's most powerful men.

"Suppose that you and I were sitting in a quiet room overlooking a garden, chatting and sipping at our cups of green tea while we talked about something that had happened a long while ago, and I said to you, "That afternoon when I met so-and-so . . . was the very best afternoon of my life, and also the very worst afternoon.""

One of the longer first sentences we've had, but it still has a question in it. What happened on that long ago afternoon that made it the best and the worst of her life? I'd already seen the movie, but my memory of it was such that I didn't know the answer, and so I read. And read. And read some more.

This read quicker than The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and despite both being set in Japan this had a different feel to it. Of course, life in a foreign port at the beginning of the 19th century is different to the life of a small fishing village or a busy city where the old (traditional geisha) is being introduced to the new (electricity, Western practices, American military men). The writing was lovely. Motifs like Chiyo/Sayuri, the narrator and protagonist, being made of water and her metaphors and imagery were beautifully done. The plot follows Chiyo from her childhood in a fishing village to when she is brought to Gion to be a geisha, and the delays and advances that followed. There is a diverse range of characters from the not terribly attractive business-minded Mother to brutal Grandmother, vain and malevolent Hatsumomo, shy Pumpkin, and the elegant Chairman. Then there's Nobu-san. This is a man who doesn't shy from speaking his mind. He's coarse to the point of being rude, expects greatness from everyone and doesn't veil his disgust when his standards aren't met, and largely sees life in black and white. Oh, and he's lost one arm and has a terrible burn on one side of his face that earned him the nickname Mr Lizard. And I kind of love him. It's good writing that can make you like a guy like that.

There is a lot of beauty in this book, but there's also hardship. Chiyo is horribly misled about what's happening when she's brought to Gion with her sister following her mother's illness. Life in the okiya is not easy when you're on the lowest rung, essentially a maid, especially when you attract the ill will of the high-up Hatsumomo. Chiyo/Sayuri's beauty is always a double-edged sword. The same way the best afternoon of her life was the worst, her looks are a blessing and a curse. The sex scenes (there aren't many) are anatomical, not easily confused with a love scene. The descriptions of kimono are more loving.

If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, I'd recommend both, book before movie. Both are beautiful. The language of the book gives insight into Sayuri's mind and the movie's cinematography is gorgeous, and Sayuri's a character you want good things to happen for (though I may have disagreed about what 'good' was for her).


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