Memoirs of a Geisha - Analysis. Review on Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden

After reading the last pages of the book, I had felt why had I read it at ll? The conclusion drained out all my feelings,  though I would say not for the central character Sayuri, for she had always longed for it . For my part I always enjoyed Nobu's conversations with Sayuri even though it was not intellectual. But what attracted me towards the part was sneer and scowl that Nobu had in his words which brought out the hypocrisy in the lives of Geisha's, especially with the kind of insipid past which none of us like to remember, but the life itself afterwards becomes engulfed that one hardly knows that one has been through something horrid, though it does leave a mark behind, somewhere in the subconscious, as a reminder of the emptiness, of sometimes perhaps the transience of material life we lead.

This is exactly what  I felt after reading the book. If you have not read the book, you will not understand what am I talking about. Let me give a quick overview:

Sayuri- san - a popular geisha, who was once a very poor girl of a fisher-man, does not know what her life would become after her father had sold her to some one who had sold her to slavery - thats what Geisha's life is all about. She does not have choice of her own, she has to do whatever her owner - in the case of Okiya - where Geisha's are bred, mother  asks her to do . But she  has one desire that is become a Geisha - for in the process after being successful, one could earn one's independence- and have a chairman of electric company as her Danna. This is the plot .

I don't understand what the author exactly had in his mind while writing the memoir, but I have come to a conclusion, that whatever genre this fiction fits into, its certainly not a memoir.Nevertheless, the style  and the language of the book is extraordinary - the author deserves appreciation, for he philosophizes even the mundane things and infact they are, which made me turn pages without ever getting tired.  Arthur Golden  has messed up a wonderful work. There need not have been a chairman, Sayuri need not have taken any affection towards him at all, nor was there any need to make Nobu's character a bit cinematic, a kind of lets say  a supporting actor , thats what he becomes in the end.

The fiction blends historicism- giving many different insights into the life of  a Geisha and the lil Japanese lifestyle, so to say, It seems like a biography - as the author says memoir - because the author speaks through Sayuri - here again the reflection of the author is so explicit sometimes, because I cannot imagine any japanese citizen having soft corner for America, after having been a witness to one of the worst horrors that befell th world, but here there is Sayuri having soft corner for New York, Its also a fiction, for the end rapts up like a cinema - almost Sayuri, a geisha ends up with a love affair, and all the more she seemed to have satisfaction, which would have been impossible, had she ever remembered her past - her sister whom she lost, her father who had sold her and her mother who died of cancer. If a danna could substitute for all that she had lost according to the author, then I would feel sorry, for Sayuri would never have felt so.

There's another character whom I almost forgot - "Hatsumomo", another Geisha, who is jealous of Sayuri and tends to spoil all of Sayuri's efforts to become Geisha. It is this picture that gives a true glimpse of what a Geisha's life is all about, of what the ycan afford when they lose their prime, I mean their beauty. The author himself makes comment on Mameha - the Geisha who trains Sayuri, of the apartment she lives in after she has a break-up with her Danna. After Hatsumomo's disappearence, Sayuri gets peace, but its not peace, rather emptiness.

Another important aspect dealt in the book is destiny. Superstitions are part of a Geisha's life.From the beginning Destiny plays an important role. I think at one point of time Arthur Golden himself gave his book to shaped by it, may be that's why we find suddenly all sorts of things turning up- read the last 150 pages, you will understand why am I saying that.

Arthur Golden desrves appreciation, but I wish, he could have been more prudent. What he failed to bring out was Sayuri's feeling of emptiness after all that she had undergone. The peace that Sayuri feels is not peace at all - Its emptiness-a kind of mock happiness, a facade. But  Arthur has given it a Shakespearean comedy end - a happy ending with Sayuri running a tea house in New York.

When I read the book, I had a feeling that the author was making the charcter "Sayuri" feel happy, which he himself was not able to do.

Looking forward to another of his work, but certainly not a messed up one like this. Its a beautiful book - a must read, but do make a subjective analysis please!