Reads.

Have run out of books to read, so decided to reread "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden.

I guess since the movie's coming out soon, it reminded me of it. I hope that Zhang girl would do a decent job of playing the lead. I suppose when you read a book, you've built a certain image of the character in your head. I would've preferred if they'd cast that Japanese model/actress, Kayuki, from "The Last Samurai" instead, but I guess she don't speak no English eh?.
I last read this book in 2001 whilst I was willing the hours away during my haemodialysis at the hospital. It's good read I remember.

Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

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 rumour spread by a rival "as cruel as a spider."

Funnily enough I don't own this book, it's my sister's, which is unusual since I'm the confirmed bookworm in this house, but she was always a sucker for the "female hero overcomes adversity" type biography bestsellers.

Another book she got right was "Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter" by Adeline Yen Mah. Another great read.