Geisha
by Liza Dalby
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Book Reviews of Geisha
Book Review: Spoiled by the author's conceit
Summary: 2 Stars
The book's cover says that Liza Dalby is the only foreigner ever to have become an actual geisha', but she was never an actual geisha. Dalby didn't undergo the rigourous training necessary to become a fully qualified geisha, she wasn't ever a registered geisha, and claiming on the cover of the book that she was a geisha is blatant misrepresentation. It takes a lot more than a powdered face and following actual geisha about to become a geisha, and claiming otherwise is so unfair to the women who really do train hard and earn the name. In addition, Dalby is way too impressed with herself for the book to be enjoyable.Book Review: Wistful, Affectionate and Scholarly
Summary: 5 Stars
Geisha is a lovely read. I finished it months ago but still think about it frequently. Dalby's love for Kyoto and her respect for the people she interviews and comes to know are evident throughout the book. Especially entertaining are the chapter on traveling to a hot-spring resort and the section detailing the separate evolution of the community of Tokyo geisha. I also like the structure of the book. In its first pages, events are described that tip the reader off to the fragility of the geishas' world, and warn of its likely demise.
Reviewers who complain that Dalby wasn't a "real" practitioner of the art and that she lived among the geiko and maiko for only a year fail to understand how extraordinary it is that she was allowed into the geisha house. The world of geisha in Kyoto is gently but firmly closed, not just to foreigners but to the average Japanese person as well. To wander the tiny lanes of Gion at night is to really understand this. Everything is muted. Light from inside the small, demure wooden buildings leaks from under doorways and around window screens; the doings inside are protected from strangers' ears and eyes.
Ever the slightly less-refined sister of Gion and already in transition when Geisha was published almost three decades ago, Pontocho is no longer the same as it was in Dalby's book. Teahouses have been replaced by bars and nightclubs. Thankfully Dalby was there in time to explain the lives of the people whose time on earth revolved around that little lane, and whose way of life doesn't exist any longer.
Book Review: Introductory look by an American
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a cultural look at the geisha world from the American viewpoint. I think she may not have been introduced into the real authentic world, but it was interesting reading. Since then, I've read other books by actual geishas to get a better look inside their world.Book Review: Very Interesting
Summary: 5 Stars
This book not only holds your attention, but it opens the doors that have been closed so long to outsiders, even most japanese, for so long. I bought this about a year ago, and i didnt put it down for 3 days, which was the amount of time it took me to finish it. I read this after memoirs of a geisha and i really loved it. Liza Dalby got the experience of a lifetime, one that many of us wish we could have. All in all i have to say this is one of the best books about geisha...or any other book for that matter, i have ever read.Book Review: the best I have read about Geisha
Summary: 5 Stars
Liz Dalby's book from the late seventies is a portrait in time of the flower and willow world of Geisha that no other Western author has ever been able to capture. This makes Arthur Golden's book Memoirs of a Geisha laughable compared to the poignancy of the stories of real Geisha and the lives they led at the time of writing.
Dalby also gives plenty of history (she is an anthropologist) as well as becoming her own test subject by actually portraying geisha herself. These personal accounts are worth every penny for the privelage. I would have much rather seen a film of this book!
There is so much that is deeply moving about her relationships with the Geisha and the dramatic losses of real life that are interwoven throughout the book. I would love to see a follow-up to the book, to see how all of this ultimately became part of her life.
There are excellent photos throughout, though some in color would have been nice. This is a true anthropological memoir but it is never dry, never overly intellectual. Dalby is not a great writer but she is a terrific journalist.
I've read many books about Geisha and this stands alone as the finest.