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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
Intéressant, surtout quand on ne connaît absolument rien à la culture nippone. En revanche je n'ai ABSOLUMENT pas adhéré au personnage de Mineko, bien que j'admire sa détermination et sa rigueur. Je ressors au moins de cette lecture avec une image toute autre des geishas (comme quoi les clichés...)
Interesting from the cultural, traditional and historical point of view; though not without its flaws.
Full (long) review: https://weneedhunny.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/geisha-of-gion-by-mineko-iwasaki/
Full (long) review: https://weneedhunny.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/geisha-of-gion-by-mineko-iwasaki/
If you're looking for the idea of 'Memoirs of a Geisha' from the perspective of an actual geisha, here's your book.
This was an interesting view into the world of Kyoto's geisha community. However, Mineko comes across as very self-aggrandizing and boastful. Could have done with a little less of her saying how wonderful she is, and a bit more explanation of some of the rituals and cultural points. If you're looking around for something more accurate after reading Memoirs of a Geisha, I recommend Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda instead. She details her life as a hot springs geisha with a more realistic eye than Mineko.
Wasn't quite what I was expecting, but interesting enough to hold my attention. A very quick read.
Not the sensationalist
story you might expect,
Geisha, A Life is actually
a gentle look at a world
most people know little
about. I was captivated
by this story.
story you might expect,
Geisha, A Life is actually
a gentle look at a world
most people know little
about. I was captivated
by this story.
Very interesting introduction to modern geiko culture and mores. I appreciated the amount of detail she went into about daily life, especially in early sections. The later part of the book lost that and felt a little rushed. The book certainly made a point of settling misconceptions about the profession, which I appreciated.
Ms. Iwasaki was very much at the top of the heap in terms of wealth and popularity, and I'd be interested in reading about how less privileged geiko managed.
Ms. Iwasaki was very much at the top of the heap in terms of wealth and popularity, and I'd be interested in reading about how less privileged geiko managed.
The important lesson is that the child who spends her free time hiding in a cupboard isn't well-suited to spend her life as a professional social butterfly. Mineko Iwasaki is adamant that she spent her childhood hiding in very big cupboards, but the lesson holds. This book sat uncomfortably with me and I didn't like it. My first problem was that Mineko's parents farmed her older sisters out to an okiya. That seems so deeply wrong to me. Mineko was the eighth child in her family and sending her off seems less cruel, since the family is already huge and how much time do you have for that kid anyway?, but how do you give up your first two children? Mineko firsts meets them at the okiya and has no idea that these two sisters even existed. And her parents send her off unweaned. What in the hell? Granted, she's an obstinate three-year-old who refuses to give up breastfeeding, but then she breastfeeds for comfort until she's ten. That's weird. Other cultures are different and such, but I'm pretty sure that's weird. Mineko is ripped apart by her love of her family and her love of dance, and the love of dance means forsaking her family and pledging herself to the okiya, and dance is her passion, but I said that too dramatically. This book is written in a, "This happened and then this happened and then this happened and then this happened," format and everything is bleak and monotonous, although it might be supposed to evoke other moods? Occasionally, Mineko will say something like, "My friends and I had fun together," but without this information sprinkled in, one would assume that she had no friends. Same thing for being the most popular maiko in Japan for several years. If she didn't say, "I was the most popular maiko in Japan," every once in a while, a reader would assume that her unending slog of classes, dance performances, and attending private events was not associated with incredible celebrity that she, as a naive teenager, was weirdly unaware of or unaffected by. The minutia of being a geiko is where this book shines, but it's still written in a dry way. One assumes that Mineko Iwasaki could write volumes about traditional hairstyles, for example, and that would be great if one were seeking that information, and Iwasaki probably should have written those books instead, but the writing style isn't engaging enough for me to pay attention to how an older maiko puts her hair up in such a way that it's different from a younger maiko's hair. I'm going to put this in a Little Free Library but I wouldn't recommend pulling it out of there.
informative
medium-paced
In general, the book is disorganized and quite boring. It has some train of thought but here and there jumps between stories like a kid remembers what they did yesterday.
Regarding the story and having read Memoirs of a Geisha just before it, it has a lot of points in common but with more realism concerning relationships and life in Japan. There's no wicked witchy stepmother and keeps reassuring that geisha is performer and not high class prostitute. But there's a point where you start wondering if everything is real or part fiction. She was a legend, the best geiko ever, also very conscious about other people's feelings, number one dancer, so dedicated to her career. A little too Goody two shoes, trying to always do good, be the best without competing and trying to be friends with everyone. It gets tiring, we all have some wicked string somewhere and hers felt like inocent mistakes or childish impromptus.
Regarding the story and having read Memoirs of a Geisha just before it, it has a lot of points in common but with more realism concerning relationships and life in Japan. There's no wicked witchy stepmother and keeps reassuring that geisha is performer and not high class prostitute. But there's a point where you start wondering if everything is real or part fiction. She was a legend, the best geiko ever, also very conscious about other people's feelings, number one dancer, so dedicated to her career. A little too Goody two shoes, trying to always do good, be the best without competing and trying to be friends with everyone. It gets tiring, we all have some wicked string somewhere and hers felt like inocent mistakes or childish impromptus.