Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
I would recommend this to anyone interested in Japanese culture or history. Very enjoyable. I would also recommend to anyone who enjoys biographies in general.
No narrative structure, but rich with details for people who are interested in Geisha culture.
It made me very happy to see that Geisha were actually independent business women, not oppressed and abused like "memoirs of a Geisha" made them out to be.
It made me very happy to see that Geisha were actually independent business women, not oppressed and abused like "memoirs of a Geisha" made them out to be.
Geisha, a Life is the autobiography of a woman who worked as a geisha (more accurately, as a maiko and then geiko) from ~1965 - 1980. I picked this book up after seeing Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha mentioned in a [metafilter post](https://www.metafilter.com/185398/As-for-the-so-called-woeful-inaccuracies-in-my-book) related to the ongoing American Dirt ridiculousness. I had liked Memoirs of a Geisha as a teen, but hadn't dug into its backstory back then. After not very much digging, I discovered that one of the author's sources had written her own autobiography. Yay!
This was a very fast read for me. It is simply written, with an astonishing amount of detail for people and visuals.
I was left perplexed by how the author jumped from being an unworldly, financially-naive young adult to being financially successful running her own business. This part is largely left out, which is consistent with the focus of the rest of the book: this book seems to be more about a particular aspect of Japanese culture, as participated in by the author, than about the author's inner life.
This was a very fast read for me. It is simply written, with an astonishing amount of detail for people and visuals.
I was left perplexed by how the author jumped from being an unworldly, financially-naive young adult to being financially successful running her own business. This part is largely left out, which is consistent with the focus of the rest of the book: this book seems to be more about a particular aspect of Japanese culture, as participated in by the author, than about the author's inner life.
At times Mineko recalls herself a little to fondly. The chapters don't flow very well and often repeat themselves. Overall, it was interesting, but I wish it had gone deeper.
An iterating inside into the Japanese culture and from the perspective of an interesting woman, who gives an honest point of view of what happened in her life.
It was a pretty solid book. The writing was simple but pretty and the story flowed. It's a true story so there wasn't really any huge plot stuff happening, basically it was just Mineko's life. I thought it was interesting and I love hearing about different cultures and societys.
3.5
I really enjoyed learning about the life of geisha and the traditional Japanese culture. I even started doing Japanese on Duoling because of this book. In the future I want to read more books set in Japan, and Asia in general, because I realize how much my reading is centered around the Western world, and I want to expand my horison, as they say. Even though I liked many parts of this story, some parts were quite tedious to get through and sometimes overly descriptive. She also complains about people without really trying to understand their point of view. However, this might be a result of her very unusual upbringing as an atotori in Gion Kobu. Overall, I would recommend this book if you are interested in Japanese culture and an insider's perspective on the world of geisha.
I really enjoyed learning about the life of geisha and the traditional Japanese culture. I even started doing Japanese on Duoling because of this book. In the future I want to read more books set in Japan, and Asia in general, because I realize how much my reading is centered around the Western world, and I want to expand my horison, as they say. Even though I liked many parts of this story, some parts were quite tedious to get through and sometimes overly descriptive. She also complains about people without really trying to understand their point of view. However, this might be a result of her very unusual upbringing as an atotori in Gion Kobu. Overall, I would recommend this book if you are interested in Japanese culture and an insider's perspective on the world of geisha.
funny
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
I made it half way. Highly recommended to me by an acquaintance, it is the autobiography of the real life Memoirs of Geisha woman. I use "real life" loosely. If everyone remembers, Iwasaki openly condemned Memoirs of Geisha, which made me want to read the "real" account.
She can remember life in minutiae from the time she was three, down to what she ate and wore every.single.day. At three she psychoanalyzed her parents and their motives in a way that made my adult head spin and was completely unbelievable. Still I thought I would struggle on. I hoped her adult life would educate me on the life of the Geisha. It only illuminated Iwasaki. She came across as petulant, selfish and narcissistic. As a child, she was nothing less than a brat. Everyone else in this book was mean if they didn't agree with her. I was sad for the small child, basically sold away, who spent time hiding in closets. Perhaps this was where her narcissism stemmed from. She said had she not been a Geisha, she might have been a Buddhist nun. I couldn't get my head around that.
I want to believe that something was lost in translation and also a culture about as different from ours as can be imagined. But the unbelievable memory of her 3 year old life (and 4...5 year old life) made me suspect of everything else she wrote. Combined with an arrogant author and poor writing (every other sentence began with "I"), made this book unfinishable for me. This is a book about Iwasaki (and that is how an autobiography should be), not so much about Geisha life. Fair warning.
She can remember life in minutiae from the time she was three, down to what she ate and wore every.single.day. At three she psychoanalyzed her parents and their motives in a way that made my adult head spin and was completely unbelievable. Still I thought I would struggle on. I hoped her adult life would educate me on the life of the Geisha. It only illuminated Iwasaki. She came across as petulant, selfish and narcissistic. As a child, she was nothing less than a brat. Everyone else in this book was mean if they didn't agree with her. I was sad for the small child, basically sold away, who spent time hiding in closets. Perhaps this was where her narcissism stemmed from. She said had she not been a Geisha, she might have been a Buddhist nun. I couldn't get my head around that.
I want to believe that something was lost in translation and also a culture about as different from ours as can be imagined. But the unbelievable memory of her 3 year old life (and 4...5 year old life) made me suspect of everything else she wrote. Combined with an arrogant author and poor writing (every other sentence began with "I"), made this book unfinishable for me. This is a book about Iwasaki (and that is how an autobiography should be), not so much about Geisha life. Fair warning.