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Memoirs of a Geisha

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 8 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 8 weeks
An alluring tour de force: a brilliant debut novel told with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism as the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.  
Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love, always elusive, is scorned as illusion.  
Sayuri's story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. Through her eyes, we see the decadent heart of Gion—the geisha district of Kyoto—with its marvelous teahouses and theaters, narrow back alleys, ornate temples, and artists' streets. And we witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. But as World War II erupts and the geisha houses are forced to close, Sayuri, with little money and even less food, must reinvent herself all over again to find a rare kind of freedom on her own terms.
Memoirs of a Geisha is a book of nuances and vivid metaphor, of memorable characters rendered with humor and pathos. And though the story is rich with detail and a vast knowledge of history, it is the transparent, seductive voice of Sayuri that the reader remembers.
A dazzling literary achievement of empathy and grace by an extraordinary new writer.
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  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In 1929 young Chiyo's father sells her to a fashionable geisha house outside of Kyoto. Thereafter her life, touched with struggle, heartache and, finally, a kind of triumph, becomes a window on both her soul and on pre-war Japanese culture, which is fragmenting around her. Bernadette Dunne's reading of this world and its strange (to Western eyes) inhabitants traces across our vision like a landscape painting on silk. The cultivated refinement of her voice ranges effortlessly and credibly from the innocent nine-year-old Chiyo to the magnificent but subtle Nitta Sayuri, the geisha she inevitably becomes. By the end we can almost see and hear the beautiful Sayuri step lightly across the polished wooden floor of the teahouse in her richly brocaded kimono to pour saki for the chairman. P.E.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 3, 2000
      Trigiani's story of a middle-aged spinster finding love and a sense of self in a small Virginia coal town is a lot like a cold soda on a hot summer day: light and refreshing, if just a little too sweet. Trigiani, a playwright, filmmaker and former writer for The Cosby Show, has a Southern voice that perfectly embodies her main character, the embattled Ave Maria Mulligan. Ave Maria, who's satisfied if not exactly happy in her role as the town pharmacist, begins questioning her quiet, country life after a posthumous letter from her mother reveals a jarring secret. Ave Maria soon faces a crisis of identity, the advances of a surprising suitor and the threat of her acerbic, money-grubbing Aunt Alice. From the suitor, who points out his brand-new pickup truck during a marriage proposal, to the town temptress, who dispenses romantic advice from her bookmobile, Trigiani brings the story alive with her flexible vocal inventions. Fans of true love stories and happy endings certainly won't be disappointed. Based on the Random hardcover (Forecasts, Jan. 31).

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 22, 1997
      The life of a famous Kyoto geisha--from her painful apprenticeship in the early 1930s through the years of her prime and her later career in Manhattan--is rendered with stunning clarity in this fully imagined first novel. Golden effortlessly spins the tale as the dictated autobiography of quick-witted Chiyo Sakamoto, the daughter of a poor fisherman, who attains the pinnacle of geisha success. In the process, Golden evokes the spectrum of traditional Japanese society. Sold as a child by her financially desperate father, Chiyo is placed in a house for geisha as the personal maid to Hatsumomo, one of Kyoto's most sought-after geisha. There she is trained in the arts of dance, singing and the tea ceremony. Hatsumomo, however, threatened by Chiyo's beauty, treats her with unrestrained cruelty. Chiyo's position is one of indentured servitude: she may not leave until she has repaid all of her living expenses and even her original purchase cost. After many vicissitudes, Chiyo is transformed into a celebrated geisha called Sayuri; many men offer to be her danna (high-paying boyfriend), an honor that--defying Western expectations--does not include sex unless the geisha chooses so. Despite legions of admirers however, Chiyo/Sayuri secretly pines for an unattainable man. Golden splendidly renders the superficiality of geisha culture: the word geisha translates to "artist" or "artisan," and the women spend hours painting on porcelain make-up, caring for their beautifully hued silk kimonos and honing clever conversational skills. Counter to everything geisha are taught, Chiyo learns that her own feelings do matter, and honoring them results in a well-earned, intelligent and satisfyingly happy ending. Foreign rights sold in 11 countries; Random House audio; author tour.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Boyd makes a prudent choice in this evocative novel that plumbs a facet of Japanese culture utterly unfamiliar to a Western readership. Wisely avoiding the mistake of aping an Oriental accent, her voice has an appealing exotic flavor that manages to evoke another time and place. The book is a remarkable journey into the education and existence of geishas, who represent a mysterious mixture of degradation and grandeur. Golden's novel, while always illuminating, is also encyclopedic, sometimes to a fault. Boyd's warmth adds a necessary charm that helps make Golden's erudition go down easier. M.O. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Sold into geisha training in 1929 when she's only 9 years old, Nitta Sayuri transforms herself over the next decade from a poor fisherman's daughter to a coveted geisha. Elaina Erika Davis does an exquisite job bringing Sayuri's mythic adventure to life. She's just as convincing portraying the child at the mercy of the elder geisha who desperately wants to see Sayuri fail as she is bringing to life the adult Sayuri's passionate yearning for the man she loves. Davis's talent, combined with Arthur Golden's painstaking detail of life in Japan in the early twentieth century, makes Memoirs of a Geisha both fascinating and educational. R.A.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 10, 2005
      Arthur Golden's 1997 tale appealed to director Marshall (Chicago
      ) for the same reasons it attracted millions of readers: because it "not only peers into the fascinating and forbidden world of a geisha's life in 1930s Japan, but also tells the emotional tale of one particular girl's journey." This accompanying volume to the forthcoming film based on the book will certainly enchant fans. In his introduction, Golden recalls how "curious" it was for him to walk around a full-scale geisha district of the 1930s built on a field in California and know that such a detailed set grew out of his grueling experience writing the novel. A history of the geisha comes next, and then a portfolio of images from the film, some quite striking (such as the one of geisha practicing movements with fans, hair down, relaxed in their dressing robes and lit from behind). The book's final portion is devoted to the making of the film, with archival images of geisha, a concept illustration of a cherry-blossom-viewing party and notes on how, for example, the structural surfaces of the buildings on the set were sandblasted to add texture and age.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1000
  • Text Difficulty:5-7

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