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A review by rayarriz
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
5.0
I haven't I've enjoyed a book this much in long time. I stayed up straight through the night reading this. All. Night. Long. I was still reading at 8 AM and the sunlight was streaming through my windows. My mind couldn't release melatonin when Golden's writing was so beautiful and the story so captivating.
It was a Saturday and I had nothing to do, so after I got dressed I read the book all day. I read it eating. I read it sitting up in bed. I read it even though my sister wondered why was I shut up in my room all day. The only other books I've ever been so caught up in were [b:Twice Freed|543494|Twice Freed|Patricia St. John|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355913735s/543494.jpg|530794] and [b:The Picture of Dorian Gray|5297|The Picture of Dorian Gray|Oscar Wilde|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424596966s/5297.jpg|1858012].
Well so much for the rant. But you know how we book lovers are. We tend to be a bit longwinded about the books we read. Now a little on the story. Chiyo is the narrator. Her story begins when she is nine years old and her mother is dying of cancer. Chiyo lives by the sea in a little dingy town. After a list of events, she finds herself sold to an okiya, a place where geisha train. Here we met the characters Granny, Auntie, Mother and Hatsumomo. Hastumomo's rivalry with Chiyo and her "older sister" Mameha made the story. After all, what's a book without conflict and a nasty antagonist?
It's a clever book. The language is great. Right on the first page, these lines grab attention: "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.'"
And there's the compulsion to keep reading. Then the characters are so well developed. And the description is a picture. When I finished the book I thought, Well, I just got back from Kyoto district in Japan.
It was a Saturday and I had nothing to do, so after I got dressed I read the book all day. I read it eating. I read it sitting up in bed. I read it even though my sister wondered why was I shut up in my room all day. The only other books I've ever been so caught up in were [b:Twice Freed|543494|Twice Freed|Patricia St. John|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355913735s/543494.jpg|530794] and [b:The Picture of Dorian Gray|5297|The Picture of Dorian Gray|Oscar Wilde|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424596966s/5297.jpg|1858012].
Well so much for the rant. But you know how we book lovers are. We tend to be a bit longwinded about the books we read. Now a little on the story. Chiyo is the narrator. Her story begins when she is nine years old and her mother is dying of cancer. Chiyo lives by the sea in a little dingy town. After a list of events, she finds herself sold to an okiya, a place where geisha train. Here we met the characters Granny, Auntie, Mother and Hatsumomo. Hastumomo's rivalry with Chiyo and her "older sister" Mameha made the story. After all, what's a book without conflict and a nasty antagonist?
It's a clever book. The language is great. Right on the first page, these lines grab attention: "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.'"
And there's the compulsion to keep reading. Then the characters are so well developed. And the description is a picture. When I finished the book I thought, Well, I just got back from Kyoto district in Japan.