Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Geisha, a Life

I wish to note at the outset that, while I really liked this book, I think a lot of people will find it very dry. Mineko Iwasaki's memoir is a story of her life as well as the story of geisha, and, as the latter involves and relies upon so much detail, it is necessary to include a lot of description. I found it fascinating; I know other people will be bored.

So. Know that going in, if you decide to read this book (instead of Arthur Golden's fictionalized rip-off of Mineko Iwasaki's life).

I know very little about geisha or about what life was like for children in post-WWII Japan, so almost everything in this book was new to me. Mineko Iwasaki (and Rande Brown)'s writing style is light and the book is well-organized. There are a lot of Japanese terms, and fortunately most appear in the foreword (I'm calling it the foreword--it's the initial, unnumbered chapter); the book could really use a glossary at the end, because at times it got a little difficult to keep everything straight. There are two photo sections, which are lovely, but I wanted more--and in a book with this much detail, I think more photos is a fair request!

I learned a lot from this book--about geisha, about Mineko Iwasaki herself, about the culture surrounding geisha--and I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

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tourthebookshelf's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

4.5

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leweylibrary's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

I'm really glad that I read this book instead of reading Memoirs of a Geisha. I think the biggest benefit of reading this book is that it really drives home. The point that geisha's are a cultural thing, not a sexual thing, and that's really important because of the way that guy shows were portrayed in that book and movie.

I also think it's important to keep in mind that this is just one person's experience. She portrayed herself as very aloof very above it all, especially when it came to matters of sex and love, although a lot of that is also because of her negative sexual experience young in life, so that's worth taking into consideration as well. I thought it was really funny the little snippets of stories that she would tell about interactions with famous people like Prince Charles and the Queen of England and other celebrities.

Like many memoirs, I am a little frustrated that she didn't go into more detail about her later life, particularly her thoughts and feelings and actions around retiring from being a geisha and her plans and life after that decision.

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