Memoirs Of a Geisha

I finally eneded this novel I was reading today. I don't have much to say except that I liked it very much. The narration is fluid and excellent and scenery it draws in the minds eye of the pre World War II Japan, their rich culture and their exotic dresses called "Kimono" is enchanting. The characters are genuine and you can instantly connect and empathise with the lead protagonist Sayuri.


Borrowing a review from Amazon.com:
"I wasn't born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha....I'm a fisherman's daughter from a little town called Yoroido on the Sea of Japan." How nine-year-old Chiyo, sold with her sister into slavery by their father after their mother's death, becomes Sayuri, the beautiful geisha accomplished in the art of entertaining men, is the focus of this fascinating first novel. Narrating her life story from her elegant suite in the Waldorf Astoria, Sayuri tells of her traumatic arrival at the Nitta okiya (a geisha house), where she endures harsh treatment from Granny and Mother, the greedy owners, and from Hatsumomo, the sadistically cruel head geisha. But Sayuri's chance meeting with the Chairman, who shows her kindness, makes her determined to become a geisha. Under the tutelage of the renowned Mameha, she becomes a leading geisha of the 1930s and 1940s.