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sadiereadsagain 's review for:
Geisha of Gion
by Mineko Iwasaki
Hmmm. I'm in a quandary as to how to review this book.
Some background, both to my position and the memoir itself. I read [b:Memoirs of a Geisha|929|Memoirs of a Geisha|Arthur Golden|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409595968l/929._SY75_.jpg|1558965] many moons ago, in a time where both my own and popular conscience were not as switched on to the concepts of own voices or representation as we now (thankfully) are. I loved that book. I still have my copy and until recent years thought of it fondly. I've never reread it, as I don't tend to do that, but my opinion on it has changed as my conscience has grown and I've become aware of the controversy surrounding the book. That controversy was probably why I bought this memoir, but I'm not sure as it's sat in my TBR pile for a number of years. But basically, Arthur Golden took one woman's accounts of life as a geisha, used them in his novel whilst breaking their confidentiality agreement in the process, and in so doing managed to misrepresent not only the individual but all geisha by fuelling the Western view of them as simply high-class prostitutes. Which is apparently very much not the case, so much so that the woman in question took legal action against him. And then she wrote her own memoir to reclaim her story and set the record straight. That woman was Mineko Iwasaki.
So here we have the memoir. But do I review it in the context of the Golden controversy or on its own merit?
I'll do both. In short, this book sets the record straight (or Iwasaki's version, which could be claimed to be damage limitation for the geisha name...but I don't think that's the case, given that she is long out of the geisha life and would gain nothing from that. In fact, she'd have gained more from telling the truth if it concurred with Golden's version, because it would have been a much more scandalous and juicy expose). This book is a detailed (and I mean detailed) look at the world of geiko (the more accurate title for geisha working in the Gion district), filled with all you could ever wish to know about life in the okiya, the training, the art forms geiko must master, the kimonos they dress in and of course, what they actually do. And *spoiler* sex work isn't one of them. From that perspective, this book is a fabulous deep-dive into that world at a point in time.
But as a memoir, this fell flat for me. Part of that may be the translation, but that can't be the whole reason. I found that, compared to how deep we get into the minutiae of geiko life, we only skim the surface of Iwasaki. She leaves her family as a young child to enter this world, someone close to her dies horribly, there is attempted rape, and whilst she divulges these she does so in a detached way. Even her more positive experiences are dealt with briefly, usually by her reminding us how great and successful she was, before being tossed aside. There is a lack of emotional depth to this book. Instead, we are presented with a woman who seems to believe her own hype, who feels she can't put a foot wrong and that anyone who thinks she has is simply jealous. At times she is very judgemental of others, but doesn't seem to feel the need to turn those standards on herself. She has an affair with a married man for years, but her sister who left the okiya in debt to get get married is turned into a monster not because she's a horrible person (though, she is) but because she dared to return, and as a divorced woman no less.
I just couldn't warm to her at all, and at times found her pretty boring. Which is strange given that she was the besteverdontyouforgetitsosuccessfulgreatestever geisha that ever lived, which at the very least would imply that part of her skillset is to make people feel happy, comfortable and entertained in her presence. I know you don't need to love everyone who ever set pen to paper, but this disconnect between the basic qualification of a successful geisha and the woman we are presented with made me question the validity of certain aspects of her story. But maybe that's just down to the writing...perhaps she is an astonishing geiko, but just a mediocre writer.
I don't know. Told you I didn't know how to review this.
Some background, both to my position and the memoir itself. I read [b:Memoirs of a Geisha|929|Memoirs of a Geisha|Arthur Golden|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409595968l/929._SY75_.jpg|1558965] many moons ago, in a time where both my own and popular conscience were not as switched on to the concepts of own voices or representation as we now (thankfully) are. I loved that book. I still have my copy and until recent years thought of it fondly. I've never reread it, as I don't tend to do that, but my opinion on it has changed as my conscience has grown and I've become aware of the controversy surrounding the book. That controversy was probably why I bought this memoir, but I'm not sure as it's sat in my TBR pile for a number of years. But basically, Arthur Golden took one woman's accounts of life as a geisha, used them in his novel whilst breaking their confidentiality agreement in the process, and in so doing managed to misrepresent not only the individual but all geisha by fuelling the Western view of them as simply high-class prostitutes. Which is apparently very much not the case, so much so that the woman in question took legal action against him. And then she wrote her own memoir to reclaim her story and set the record straight. That woman was Mineko Iwasaki.
So here we have the memoir. But do I review it in the context of the Golden controversy or on its own merit?
I'll do both. In short, this book sets the record straight (or Iwasaki's version, which could be claimed to be damage limitation for the geisha name...but I don't think that's the case, given that she is long out of the geisha life and would gain nothing from that. In fact, she'd have gained more from telling the truth if it concurred with Golden's version, because it would have been a much more scandalous and juicy expose). This book is a detailed (and I mean detailed) look at the world of geiko (the more accurate title for geisha working in the Gion district), filled with all you could ever wish to know about life in the okiya, the training, the art forms geiko must master, the kimonos they dress in and of course, what they actually do. And *spoiler* sex work isn't one of them. From that perspective, this book is a fabulous deep-dive into that world at a point in time.
But as a memoir, this fell flat for me. Part of that may be the translation, but that can't be the whole reason. I found that, compared to how deep we get into the minutiae of geiko life, we only skim the surface of Iwasaki. She leaves her family as a young child to enter this world, someone close to her dies horribly, there is attempted rape, and whilst she divulges these she does so in a detached way. Even her more positive experiences are dealt with briefly, usually by her reminding us how great and successful she was, before being tossed aside. There is a lack of emotional depth to this book. Instead, we are presented with a woman who seems to believe her own hype, who feels she can't put a foot wrong and that anyone who thinks she has is simply jealous. At times she is very judgemental of others, but doesn't seem to feel the need to turn those standards on herself. She has an affair with a married man for years, but her sister who left the okiya in debt to get get married is turned into a monster not because she's a horrible person (though, she is) but because she dared to return, and as a divorced woman no less.
I just couldn't warm to her at all, and at times found her pretty boring. Which is strange given that she was the besteverdontyouforgetitsosuccessfulgreatestever geisha that ever lived, which at the very least would imply that part of her skillset is to make people feel happy, comfortable and entertained in her presence. I know you don't need to love everyone who ever set pen to paper, but this disconnect between the basic qualification of a successful geisha and the woman we are presented with made me question the validity of certain aspects of her story. But maybe that's just down to the writing...perhaps she is an astonishing geiko, but just a mediocre writer.
I don't know. Told you I didn't know how to review this.