Memoirs of a Geisha (1997)
Aurthur Golden
503pp
Well, should we start out the new year with a real grand classic? Nope. Instead, how about a few blog updates and a good old unsurprisingly disappointing blockbuster?
For the blog, I was nearly able to do a blog a week all of 2018, probably finishing with about 50 reviews in all.
The good things:
1. Any reason to read more is good for me.
2. Any reason to practice my writing is great.
The bad things:
1. I wrote at least a few reviews about books that I had read previously and didn't retain any deep feelings for, leading to some writing just for writing's sake.
2. I avoided books that were too long as they might have caused me to get behind schedule.
So, for 2019 I will aim to publish at least 2 blogs a month, or possibly more, but the additional blogs will be on literary subjects as they strike my fancy.
In addition, I plan to read at least 12 of the books from the Modern Library 100 Greatest Books of the 20th Century. Is it a perfect list? Probably not, but as a high school student I read about 35 of the books, and I would like to some day say I have finished them all.
Despite not being J-lit, I might, if it strikes my mood, write up a bit of how these books strike me now, living here in Japan, in an age where it appears we are all very much focused on how such cannons have had influence on the world.
So, that's my 2019 plans. Maybe I'll add a few classic Japanese movie reviews when I come across an interesting movie. I also plan to stay on top of the Good Reads Japanese Literature Book Club and those will likely make up 12 of my reviews this year.
And so, with that behind me, let's take a look at Mr. Golding's hit book.
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| I love to read with history in front of me. |
What can one say about these Memoirs?
First, I can say, please read Geisha of Gion instead. It's a better book and the basis for much of what Golding wrote. How much so? Enough for Golding to have to pay a little money to the geisha for taking a bit too much of her life story.
Next, let me lament that I just don't understand how you can write a book like this and end it the way it is ended. (SPOILER ALERT< SKIP NEXT PARAGRAPH)
How do you make the climax of this rather long and painful book (arguably painful for the reader, but undeniably painful for our suffering hero) by having her celebrate rising up to be a kept woman in New York? How do we celebrate winning as defined as being another wife's man's side piece? I don't know in which way this can be seen as a happy or satisfying ending.
OK, so with spoilers over, let me give a few quick comments on the book overall.
My biggest take away from this story is that it would have worked better if it didn't feel that it had to be a romance and could have just been the suffering life of a young geisha who wins out, not by finding love, but by succeeding in some other way.
Besides that I'll say that some of this book may be enjoyable to many as a look in to a mysterious world. Those parts might allow some to even recommend this work, but for me they just weren't good enough to balance out the unimportance and odd choices of the rest of the book.
So, happy new year to all and I don't recommend this one.
Hope everyone has a wonderful 2019 full of books, Japan, and merriment.
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