Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Memoirs of a Geisha tells the story of Sayuri, a geisha in Gion, the geisha district of Kyoto, Japan. It opens with a chapter in the first person, narrated by a “translater” who supposedly received the memoirs of Sayuri in her later life, while she was living in New York. The rest of the book is narrated in the first person by Sayuri herself, and moves linearly through her life, from her first memories of being a child in a fishing village, through being taken to Kyoto and effectively being sold as a slave, to her life as a geisha, her experiences during the war, and her later life in New York.

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Book details

Memoirs of a Geisha is a novel by Arthur Golden, read by Bernadette Dunne. From Audible, but recorded by Random House Audio Books and Books on tape. It’s delivered in three sections of around six hours each (between 5:46 and 6:19). The first two sections are divided into seven chapters, the final section has eight chapters, but the chapter breaks on the recording don’t follow the chapter breaks in the book, it’s basically just blocks of 50 minutes for each chapter.

Story overview

Memoirs of a Geisha tells the story of Sayuri, a geisha in Gion, the geisha district of Kyoto, Japan. It opens with a chapter in the first person, narrated by a “translater” who supposedly received the memoirs of Sayuri in her later life, while she was living in New York. The rest of the book is narrated in the first person by Sayuri herself, and moves linearly through her life, from her first memories of being a child in a fishing village, through being taken to Kyoto and effectively being sold as a slave, to her life as a geisha, her experiences during the war, and her later life in New York. Two major themes run through the book: the idea of love (or obsession) for one man, and the idea of being opposed in her goals by a variety of people, especially Hatsumomo, another geisha who lives in the same complex.

Reader

I found the reading a little slow and slightly stilted, I was always aware of the reader so couldn’t just focus on the story. Each character was given a slightly different voice, which on the whole were good, although occasionally I felt that Sayuri was acted in a voice that was too young for her age. I also feel that it would have been nice to have a reader who was more familiar with Japanese words and expressions, as there seemed to be a slight pause before many of these words.

Positives and negatives

I really enjoyed the story, the characters were well-defined and the action moved swiftly. It was a beautiful narrative, though I wonder how true-to-life it is — it struck me as slightly surreal. The reader was okay, just a bit slow for my preference. What I really didn’t like was the chapter divisions – I like to know how long each chapter is, and this book was divided into 50-minute segments instead of being broken up by the chapters of the book. I never knew when the chapter was going to end, which I found quite annoying.

I probably won’t listen to it again in the near future, but I’d definitely recommend it.

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© Craig and Linda Martin for Free audio book review, 2010. |
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