Memoirs of a Geisha
by Golden, Arthur
- Used
- near fine
- Paperback
- Condition
- Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 067697175X
- ISBN 13
- 9780676971750
- Seller
-
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Toronto, ON, Canada: Vintage Canada, 1999. Soft cover. Near Fine. pp.428 clean tight copy with minuscule rubbing to edges and top/bottom spines Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Synopsis
Memoirs of a Geisha is a novel by Arthur Golden, published in 1997. The novel, told in first-person view, tells the fictional story of a geisha working in Kyoto, Japan, before and after World War II.
Reviews
On Jan 16 2014, a reader said:
Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, is a warm, happy read. It is the story of a Japanese girl whose father sells her and her sister to strangers as her mother dies. Her older sister is sold into prostitution, and our heroine, Chiyo, only nine years old at the time, is sold to a geisha household in Kyoto, and expected to become a geisha. We discover that, at this time, becoming a geisha requires years of schooling. Chiyo studies various instruments, singing, dancing, and the tea ceremony, so that she can become an entertainer of men in tea houses. Eventually, she is adopted as a “younger sister” by Mameha, a first-rank geisha. All of this occurs before the Great Depression and the Second World War. During that terrible period, everyone in Japan underwent great hardships. The geisha profession was legally abolished. Chiyo, by now known by her geisha name of Sayuri, spent the war years sewing parachutes in a former kimono maker’s home and shop. After the war, she eventually was able to return to her geisha life. The story of her success, largely guided by Mameha, and her own desire to become worthy of a man she has fallen in love with, is very endearing. Somewhat to our surprise, she eventually comes to live in the USA, along with her lover. We suspect, although we are never told outright, that she has an American son. She tells her story verbally over a period of months to a sympathetic writer. This is a hard book to put down; the action is so real, and the writing so lyrical, that we feel we must keep reading until we know the end.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Booked Experiences (CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 013659
- Title
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Author
- Golden, Arthur
- Format/Binding
- Soft cover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 067697175X
- ISBN 13
- 9780676971750
- Publisher
- Vintage Canada
- Place of Publication
- Toronto, ON, Canada
- Date Published
- 1999
- Keywords
- JAPAN_FICTION FICTION_HISTORICAL
- Bookseller catalogs
- JAPAN;
Terms of Sale
Booked Experiences
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About the Seller
Booked Experiences
Biblio member since 2005
Burlington, Ontario
About Booked Experiences
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.