This is a seductive and stunningly evocative epic on an intimate scale, which tells the extraordinary story of a geisha girl. Summoning up more than twenty years of Japan's most dramatic history, it uncovers a hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation. From a small fishing village in 1929, the tale moves to the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto in the 1930s, where a young peasant girl is sold into a kind of slavery, as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. Transformed by one ...
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This is a seductive and stunningly evocative epic on an intimate scale, which tells the extraordinary story of a geisha girl. Summoning up more than twenty years of Japan's most dramatic history, it uncovers a hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation. From a small fishing village in 1929, the tale moves to the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto in the 1930s, where a young peasant girl is sold into a kind of slavery, as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. Transformed by one man's act of kindness, she fights her way through hardship and jealousies to become successful as Sayuri the geisha girl. Then war breaks out and she has to escape and transform herself once again. She tells her own story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York; and what is so utterly extraordinary about this novel is the way it exquisitely and unforgettably evokes another culture, a different time and the details of an extraordinary way of life. It conjures up the cruelty and the heartbreak, the perfection and the ugliness of life behind the rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the arts of the geisha - dancing and singing, how to wind the kimono and those elaborate hairstyles, how to walk and pour tea, and how to beguile the most powerful men.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. Size: 6x1x9; Inscribed by the author to a previous owner at the title page. Cream speckled boards over maroon quarter-cloth with bronze titling, very good with light shelf-wear, bumped spine ends. Spine square. Binding sound. Dust jacket good with shelf-wear, crumpling to spine head and small tears to fore-edge corners, and sticker remnant to back cover. Pages bright, text unmarked.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good+ in Very Good+ jacket. Signed by Author(s) Autographed wrap-around over cover. On ffep there is a gift inscription along with previous owner's name. Expedited or International shipping may cost more.
Loved it! Story line was quite different from the movie. It gives MUCH more details on the daily life of the Japanese people living at that time. As a whole; book much better than movie.
Littlehobbit
Jan 21, 2010
Loved it!
I was SO impressed by Goldens ability to capture a female perspective. Not only did I think the book was beautiful, it was powerful as well. I loved this story. I also thought that the movie was an astonishing interpretation of the book. Very unusual. Reading this book has since inspired me to learn about Japanese culture. [close]
SHIRLEY
Mar 23, 2009
VERY INTERESTING READ
IT READ THE SAME AS, IT DID THE FIRST TIME!! I WOULD READ IT AGAIN!!!
andysmom
Jul 29, 2008
Good Read
I was drawn into the story because the author described the lifestyle of a geisha very well. So this read is a good history lesson along with being a intriguing story about a young girl and her fight into womanhood.
BugEyeMidnight
Nov 6, 2007
And the movie left me feeling the same way...
This book was interesting, but I didn?t fall in love with it. The setting is beautiful, and I could feel the autohor's love for that time and place, but I have no feelings for the heroine. Mostly she gets acted upon instead of acting, which is (perhaps) the point but it?s not moving. I was very disappointed with the ending. I wanted to love it, but try as I might I just couldn?t. Overall it?s just ok.
