Rating: 7.5/10
Overall Thoughts
Beautifully written novel which brilliantly reveals Japan's culture and traditions, and transports readers into a largely vanished world.
The story is written in the perspective of a young gray-eyed girl named Chiyo who was sold to a geisha house (okiya) in the Gion district by her financially desperate father. Hatsumomo, the okiya's star geisha, felt threatened by Chiyo's beauty and treated her with indespicable cruelty. After her failed attempt at running away, Chiyo's geisha training came to a halt, and she had to become a maid instead to pay off her debts.
Feeling hopeless at her chances of ever becoming a geisha, a second chance arose when Chiyo was taken under the wing of Mameha, a well-known geisha who was a prime rival of Hatsumomo's. With Mameha's guidance, Chiyo transformed into Sayuri, one of the most prominent geisha in Kyoto.
Despite having many admirers who would offer to be her danna (patron), Sayuri secretly yearns for an unattainable man known as the Chairman. Realizing that her own happiness matters, she goes against everything geishas are taught, and made it her goal to win over the Chairman.
The story is written in the perspective of a young gray-eyed girl named Chiyo who was sold to a geisha house (okiya) in the Gion district by her financially desperate father. Hatsumomo, the okiya's star geisha, felt threatened by Chiyo's beauty and treated her with indespicable cruelty. After her failed attempt at running away, Chiyo's geisha training came to a halt, and she had to become a maid instead to pay off her debts.
Feeling hopeless at her chances of ever becoming a geisha, a second chance arose when Chiyo was taken under the wing of Mameha, a well-known geisha who was a prime rival of Hatsumomo's. With Mameha's guidance, Chiyo transformed into Sayuri, one of the most prominent geisha in Kyoto.
Despite having many admirers who would offer to be her danna (patron), Sayuri secretly yearns for an unattainable man known as the Chairman. Realizing that her own happiness matters, she goes against everything geishas are taught, and made it her goal to win over the Chairman.
Favourite Quotes from 'Memoirs of A Geisha'
"It seemed to me the world itself was feeling just as I felt. Was life nothing more than a storm that constantly washed away what had been there only a moment before, and left behind something barren and unrecognizable?"
"She looked like the demon she was, but even so, I was sick with jealousy and shame."
"Anything that made life more difficult for me only strengthened my determination to run away."
"This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely."
"Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be."
"Grief is a most peculiar thing; we're so helpless in the face of it. It's like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it."
"A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals - true equals - only when they both have equal confidence."
"To see him again after so long awakened something desperate inside of me."
"I don't know when we'll see each other again or what the world will be like when we do. We may both have seen many horrible things. But I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world."
"We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course."
"The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains."
"But now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper."
"I had to wonder if men were so blinded by beauty that they would feel privileged to live their lives with an actual demon, so long as it was a beautiful demon."
"This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely."
"Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be."
"Grief is a most peculiar thing; we're so helpless in the face of it. It's like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it."
"A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals - true equals - only when they both have equal confidence."
"To see him again after so long awakened something desperate inside of me."
"I don't know when we'll see each other again or what the world will be like when we do. We may both have seen many horrible things. But I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world."
"We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course."
"The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains."
"But now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper."
"I had to wonder if men were so blinded by beauty that they would feel privileged to live their lives with an actual demon, so long as it was a beautiful demon."
