Review by BekahBeth
This is my first review, so bear with me.
Here is a little bit about the plot, in case you have never
seen the movie or heard of it. It is a fictional story about a young girl who
starts out her life as Sakamoto Chiyo from the small fishing village of Yorido,
Japan and becomes a great geisha named Sayuri during World War II. It’s not
exactly a tale of a young girl’s dreams coming true, however. Chiyo and her
older sister Satsu are sold by their father after their mother becomes very
ill. Chiyo is sold to an okiya in the
Gion district of Kyoto, and Satsu is sold to a whorehouse in a nearby district.
Chiyo is abused, emotionally and physically, by the head geisha in the house,
Hatsumomo, and for a while it seemed like she would never become a geisha, even
if she had wanted to. When she is fourteen, she is rescued from her life as a
maid by the most popular geisha in the Gion district, Mameha, who takes her
under her wing. Although she never wanted to be a geisha, it is the life that
is forced on her and it is all she has. Like everyone else, she just wants to
be happy. However, Mameha tells her “We don’t become geisha so our lives will
be satisfying. We become geisha because we have no other choice.” It is a great
line that accurately portrays the life Sayuri is forced to live. The question
hanging throughout the entire novel is whether or not she will find the
happiness and destiny she so desperately wants.
There is a lot that happens in this book, and although I
probably could give you the entire story, I’ll let there be some surprises.
First of all, you will learn a lot of Japanese words while
reading this book. You’ll also get a peek into what it was like in Japan
before, during, and after World War II. That alone is fascinating to me as a
Westerner. There is a lot I didn’t know before I read this book that I found
interesting, like the entire geisha culture. Geisha are commonly thought of as
prostitutes in the west, but truthfully, they are more like artists and
entertainers. They have to learn dancing, music, the art of conversation, and
they continue to take advanced lessons even when they are no longer an
apprentice. The whole thing is just interesting. There’s nothing like it in
America, and really it seems that even in Japan it has changed since the time
the book was set.
Now, although geisha are not whores, there IS some sex in
the book. However, it needs to be said that even though you know exactly what
is going on, it is in no way vulgar. Sayuri grows up not knowing much about
sex, so when she finally experiences it, it’s not about passion or lust. It’s
entirely emotionless on her end, and she does it as a duty. Like many things in
her life, it is something that happens TO her. She describes more her emotional
feelings about the experience, and most of the time her attention is somewhere
else. Some of the geisha also make some dirty jokes while entertaining men,
which are funny but may offend sensitive people.
This smoothly leads me into a discussion of the language of
the book. Simply put, it is stunning. It is told in first person perspective,
and Sayuri’s way of describing things is just an art form. The language is
remarkably detailed, and you can perfectly see exactly what is going on, down
to the last detail. There is description after description of the different kimono
being worn, and the way she describes the people she meets is just exquisite.
For example, this is how she describes her father: “His face was very heavily
creased, and into each crease he had tucked some worry or other, so that it
wasn’t really his own face any longer, but more like a tree that had nests of
birds in all the branches. He had to struggle to manage it and always looked
worn out from the effort.” The whole book has a smooth, comforting voice that
you can just slip into without any trouble at all.
It should be a *little* obvious right now, but I loved this
book. Is it perfect? Of course not. I can’t speak to the historical accuracy,
and there has been some disagreement about that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t
enjoy the story. As I said, the language is just so perfect. It sucked me into
a world that is so different from my own that I should have felt way out of my
depth, but I didn’t. Thanks to Sayuri’s striking language, I felt right at
home. It’s got a love story arch to it that makes the girly girl inside me
giggle, and it is also so raw that I felt very strongly for the characters.
Sayuri’s life sucks, man, and so do the lives of almost all of the geisha in
the story. Sayuri is beaten, constantly tortured emotionally, and forced to
endure things that no little girl should. And then, when she is finally having success
and things don’t suck terribly, World War II happens and her life is uprooted
again. It’s a story of living life with the cards you are dealt and trying to
do the best you can. It absolutely should be read in schools, and I will
definitely be rereading this throughout my life.
Lastly, I’ll talk about the movie adaptation. It’s really
good. Yes, it condenses a lot of stuff and takes things out and it even makes
some small changes, but here’s my thing about movies based off of books: You
will never have a perfect adaptation. For a variety of reasons. In this case,
it’s just because they HAD to condense the events to make it fit into a story. The
book spends the first three chapters talking about events in her life in
Yorido, but in the movie it happens within a minute. Because it had to. The
movie takes the important parts and leaves the unnecessary bits behind. If you
don’t want to read the book, watch the movie. And yes, I know that a lot of the
actors in the movie are Chinese and there was controversy over that, but
apparently not a lot of Japanese actors actually auditioned for it. And the
Chinese actors in the movie are apparently more popular in Japan than Japanese
ones. Plus, the movie is in English, so whatever. Most people can’t tell the
physical differences between Japanese and Chinese people anyway.
In summary: Memoirs of
a Geisha by Arthur Golden is a GREAT book. Some sex scenes, but they are
artfully done. The only language you need to worry about is Japanese, and there
is no violence other than some discussion about bombings in World War II. A
definite read.
