Geisha : A Life
by Mineko Iwasaki
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Book Reviews of Geisha : A Life
Book Review: Interesting in and of itself
Summary: 3 Stars
Without comparing this book to to other writers, other similar pieces on gesha or geiko, I found this book interesting in and of itself.
It flowed along in an easy, near rambliing sort of writing style that took me a bit to get used to, but the images of Japan and 'Geiko' life were interesting. Especially the little tidbits of information about personal life. Perhaps not the best book I ever read, but I did enjoy the read.
Book Review: Can't put it down
Summary: 4 Stars
Geisha have always been fascinating, mostly I believe, because they are so mysterious to us Westerners. Prepare to be demystified. Golden's 'Memoirs' was like another reviewer wrote, an excellent book, but still a fairytale - a bittersweet Japanese Cinderella. This book, by contrast, was written by an actual Geisha living her own real life rags to riches story. Though we might envy her glamorous lifestyle and beautiful clothes, we sympathize with her heartbreak, rejoice in her victories, and otherwise come to care about Mineko. She is simultaneously innocent and worldly, childlike and alluring. She was the top Geiko of her era and extremely privileged. While not as dramatic as Memoirs, I enjoyed this book much more - mainly because I felt it was more accuracy and less artistic license.Book Review: Really Delivers With a Fascinating Life Story
Summary: 5 Stars
As many people seem to have done, I found this book after reading Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (which I loved, by the way.) I was hoping for an interesting, true look inside the world of the Kyoto geishas and got exactly that. Iwasaki provides a great deal of insight onto certain traditions as well as personal commentary and thoughts about the way the society works. She also includes many entertaining anecdotes, made all the better by virtue of being true. This is really a fabulous book, and one of the best autobiographies I've had the pleasure of reading in a long time.
I noticed someone else mentioned some surprisingly blatant editing errors, and I saw them too. They seem to be mistakes made in translation that were overlooked in the editing process. I wouldn't let them stop me from reading though.
Book Review: Refreshing
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw a woman reading this book on a flight from Chicago to Boston, and was intrigued. I looked it up as soon as I returned home, hoping it might be a real-life work which would serve as counterpoint to the overrated Memoirs of a Geisha,.
To my delight, it has been just that. If you're looking for more costumed cat-fighting then this book isn't for you. If you're looking to read about one real woman's experiences, and get a first-hand glimpse into this part of Japanese culture, then look no further. I found Iwasaki's writing style to be very genuine; indeed, reading Iwasaki describe events was like listening to my sensei tell me stories after class.
My only complaint is with the editing of the book -- I've found a couple of spelling/grammatical errors that surprised me. Still, it deserves 5 stars, and a more fair look than fans of Golden's frivolous book are giving it.
Book Review: The "flower and willow world" from the inside
Summary: 4 Stars
Excellent! At the age of five, Mineko Iwasaki was sent by her parent's to an okiya, a geisha house, as the house's atatori, that is, the intended successor. She studied dance, and became very well-known. This is a very interesting description of the life and training of geiko, as the Kyoto geisha are known.
At the age of twenty-nine, having inherited, she shut down the Iwasaki okiya. This was a rather disturbing action to me. The author describes her dissatisfaction with the way the "flower and willow world" was run, and her decision to close the house was intended to jolt the system. Of course, it did nothing of the kind. She does not say anything about what happened, following her action, to the people who were dependent on the house for their livelihood, and I found that omission disturbing.
Having also read Arthur Golden's extremely popular Memoirs of a Geisha, I was intrigued by the differences between the two descriptions. But I don't know whether the differences are attributable to the different eras about which the two were writing (Iwasaki was born in 1949, Golden's book covers the period from just before to just after WWII), or if Golden was exercising "artistic license".