Almost musical... Review on Memories of Geisha - Golden Arthur

Review : Its not very often that you come across books which have a very different subject.....a subject which has not been tried or tested before, in the biography genre! Well thats exactly the reason which made me pick up this copy and as predicted it turned out to be a superb narrative written in the most asthetic language, with utmost sensitivity and vision!It unfolds to us the story of Chiyo san the legendary geisha Nitta Sayuri.

... THE BLURB...

This is the story of a magnificantly beautiful looking girl called Chiyo-san living in a small fisher village called yorodio!Chiyo is brought up in poverty and living in the typical japanease huts with her siblings and parents! Her father is a fisherman and has a ill mother to take care of! Post her mother's death her father sends her and he sister to Mr Tanaka, a prosporous business man. This is when her real story starts. His house is the one where she finds the smallest comforts of life luxuries!...Unfortunately she does not get a chance to stay there because he sells her off to an okiya( where the ill-reputed house)in the famous geisha district of kyoto, and her sister to a brothel where she becomes a prostitute... What the book actually narrates to us is the life of chiyo as a geisha, the hardships she goes through, the different stages in the life of a geisha where she has to fight tough battles of compitition and sadistic sabotage from peers and the envious, where she learns that only hard work and drive can get you on the top also with a bulky percentage of luck involved! The author very successfully gives us an account on the enchanting yet depressing world of geishas! This books opens so many new thaughts to us and gives us a beautiful insight into the fast fading oriantal japanease culture which involved the very elobarate costumes, the ever ravishing tea ceremonies , the annual fares and practiced dances. Actually one can go on and on about this book but I feel u can yourself take a peek..

THE STYLE OF WRITING...

The main hero of the rich story is the beautiful and musical way in which its written. The story is narrated with such uncompelled spontanity and sensitivity that u just are not able to put it down!....Its a very interesting life which is written so appropriately, generally what happens with most biographies is that they tend to go on for ever and bore you with chronologies of a not-so mystirious and unknown life....but thats far from the case here! Sir Arthur Golden has done complete justice to the biography with his impeccable style and flow of words. I mean, this seemed more like an autobiography because you could feel her emotions , her anger, her jealousy and her drive towards becoming a legend! The relationship thats shown between the chairman and her is not been given too much importance as it was about her whole life but yet it seems so romantic! The period when he describes the drastic change in the lives of the geisha's and their sudden and swift fall from prosperity and fame due to the world wars is so disheartning that you feel really sad because a big and important part of the cultural history has suddenly become invisible to the world! Over all I feel its a fantastic and gripping read and I dont mind calling it a classic though some people might think I am going slightly ballistic with praise! Highly reccomended