Every month, I will feature a new book related to Japan. This could be anything from ex-pats’ diaries to history books to novels. I am also on Goodreads, so if you’re looking for more general reading material you can see what I’ve been reading on there!
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
You’ve probably seen the film, but have you read the novel?
The story follows Sayuri from her childhood in an impoverished fishing village, where in 1929, she is sold to a representative of a geisha house, who is drawn by the child’s unusual blue-grey eyes. She is then taken to Gion, the pleasure district of Kyoto. In the years that follow, as she works to pay back the price of her purchase, Sayuri will be schooled in music and dance, learn to apply the geisha’s elaborate makeup, wear elaborate kimono, and care for a coiffure so fragile that it requires a special pillow. She will also acquire a magnanimous tutor and a venomous rival. Surviving the intrigues of her trade and the upheavals of war, the resourceful Sayuri is a romantic heroine on the order of Jane Eyre and Scarlett O’Hara.
