Goossen Book cover of The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories Geisha. 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. The best books about geisha The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. She tells her story verbally over a period of months to a sympathetic writer. The novel, told in first person perspective, tells the story of a fictional geisha working in Kyoto, Japan, before, during and after World War II, and ends with her being relocated to New York City. 1 MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden RELEASE DATE: Oct. We suspect, although we are never told outright, that she has an American son. Memoirs of a Geisha is a historical fiction novel by American author Arthur Golden, published in 1997. Somewhat to our surprise, she eventually comes to live in the USA, along with her lover. 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. After the war, she eventually was able to return to her geisha life. 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. The geisha profession was legally abolished. During that terrible period, everyone in Japan underwent great hardships. All of this occurs before the Great Depression and the Second World War. Eventually, she is adopted as a “younger sister” by Mameha, a first-rank geisha. Chiyo studies various instruments, singing, dancing, and the tea ceremony, so that she can become an entertainer of men in tea houses. We discover that, at this time, becoming a geisha requires years of schooling. 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. It is the story of a Japanese girl whose father sells her and her sister to strangers as her mother dies. Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, is a warm, happy read.

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