Memorable Monday #21

Posted September 17, 2018 by thebeccafiles in / 2 Comments

Happy Monday! The purpose of memorable Monday is to showcase a book that you’ve read in the past and share how/why it has stuck with you.

This week I’m featuring:

Amazon | Goodreads

I don’t remember the exact time I read Memoirs of a Geisha, but I believe I was still in high school. If not, then shortly after. It’s a sad story of slavery and human trafficking. Sisters Chiyo and Satsu are sold by their poor fisherman father in hopes of a better life for them. Instead Satsu is shipped off to a brothel, and Chiyo is sold to a Geisha house. Chiyo’s only hope at escape is to give into the lifestyle that continues to put a price tag on her. It was a shocking story for me to read, and even more so was the knowledge that geishas actually existed. There were many scenes in this story that were difficult to read. Sex trafficking isn’t an easy topic to read about. It’s a very sad reality that unfortunately still exists today in multiple ways. This is definitely a story that has stuck with me.

About the Book:

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan’s most celebrated geisha.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men’s solicitude and the money that goes with it.

In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl’s virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable.

About the Author:

Arthur Golden was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at Harvard College, where he received a degree in art history, specializing in Japanese art. In 1980 he earned an M.A. in Japanese history from Columbia University, where he also learned Mandarin Chinese. Following a summer in Beijing University, he worked in Tokyo, and, after returning to the United States, earned an M.A. in English from Boston University. He resides in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.