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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
The "other" geisha book. This is based on a true story. Wonderful, insightful, touching.
sad
fast-paced
DNF. I wanted to like this so bad. It was just so boring and the author was all over the place. It was hard to keep track of what time period of her life she was talking about, and there were so many names being thrown about that I had no idea who was who.
My friend recommended this to me after I read Memoirs of a Geisha - I enjoyed this as it was a first-hand account of a very famous Geisha.
I really enjoyed this book. After watching the movie, Memories of a Geisha, I did some research and discovered how upset Mrs. Iwasaki was by what was portrayed. I wanted to know her version of what happened. I don't know much about Japanese culture but was able to read this book without problems, and I learned so many interesting things about the life of a geiko. Highly recommend this book to anyone!
medium-paced
It's more of a 3.5 stars, but I'll mark it 4. I read about Mineko Iwasaki some time ago after I had read Memoirs of a Geisha, and felt I should read her actual memoir since she went so far as to sue Arthur Golden for outing her as the inspiration behind his book. I enjoyed the memoir for what it was and you can definitely see where Golden got many of his book's characters and memorable scenes. I agree with other readers that she did come off as self-important at times and some things do seem a bit exaggerated. She does tend to jump around, but I thought it was kind of charming and it felt like my grandmother was telling me stories. Overall, I think it was important for her to write this and set the record straight on what it's like to be a geisha, rather than letting Golden have the last word.
informative
reflective
This book was a great read and I really enjoyed it. Being able to contrast it to Arthur Golden's Memoir of a Geisha, which horribly misconstrues the art and professionalism of geisha work for prostitution, was eye-opening and I'm glad that any misconceptions I had from the fictional memoir have been proven false in this autobiography. Iwasaki Mineko's story was amazing and I enjoyed every second of learning about her life. Highly recommended, especially if you have read Memoirs of a Geisha.
mineko iwasaki wrote this book as a response to memoirs of a geisha, which she was interviewed for as research, because she felt like memoirs of a geisha misrepresented geisha life. that is all well and good. mineko is very painstaking about how a geisha is an artist, a living representation of cultural artistic history and how in the west we simply don't have the concept of a woman who could occupy a role in society like a geisha does. and in many ways the geishas are treated reverently. she is very precise about the training and every day life of a geisha.
i basically would say this book is a good book to skim over if you're looking for info about geisha life. the minutest details of every second of mineko's life are covered in this book, like ridiculously so. if she pet a dog or spoke to her aunt or sat down or stood up, you're going to read about it AND it's really boring. also, i know she's a famous geisha and stuff and very beautiful and her whole life was about how beautiful and talented she is but i found it very eye-rolly to constantly read about how amazing she considered herself to be at all possible points of her life.
i basically would say this book is a good book to skim over if you're looking for info about geisha life. the minutest details of every second of mineko's life are covered in this book, like ridiculously so. if she pet a dog or spoke to her aunt or sat down or stood up, you're going to read about it AND it's really boring. also, i know she's a famous geisha and stuff and very beautiful and her whole life was about how beautiful and talented she is but i found it very eye-rolly to constantly read about how amazing she considered herself to be at all possible points of her life.