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dee2799d 's review for:
Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha
by Lesley Downer
I found this book really relaxing, although I appreciated the book more as the writer's forays into the 'Floating World' than anything else. (i.e. I did not read this book for reference.) Kind of like a travel book focusing on a theme. Because of this, my most favourite parts are the ones where the writer goes in search of little cakes to give to mama-san and little details like that. Probably reading the book wrong, but?
From the structure of the book, however, I think that Lesley Downer's point was to show us a brief history of the geisha/geiko so as to give us a contrasting idea of what it's like to the geisha/geiko nowadays. It's always an outsider's view of an almost mystical world. A Western outsider's view. A FEMALE Western outsider's view. And I think that's what also fascinated me.
Btw: I never read Memoirs of a Geisha and I don't plan on doing so. The author might have enjoyed the novel, but I have no interest in that sort of thing at all.
From the structure of the book, however, I think that Lesley Downer's point was to show us a brief history of the geisha/geiko so as to give us a contrasting idea of what it's like to the geisha/geiko nowadays. It's always an outsider's view of an almost mystical world. A Western outsider's view. A FEMALE Western outsider's view. And I think that's what also fascinated me.
Btw: I never read Memoirs of a Geisha and I don't plan on doing so. The author might have enjoyed the novel, but I have no interest in that sort of thing at all.