[ENG] Memoirs of a Geisha - 8/10

Dramatic, very innacurate yet still an enjoyable read

        If I were to ignore the extremely westernized, whitewashed, innacurate history written in this book then this book would be amazing, dramatic-wise. But, of course since this book was literally marketed as a Memoir of a Geisha, it is very unfair to give it a whole positive review. This book though is quite popular, it is adapted to a movie that won an Oscar (or maybe some Oscars if I'm not mistaken). But we are going to focus on the literary aspects instead of the movie itself. 

            This book talks about the life of a Geisha living in the 30's - 40's during the world war. A Geisha is an entertainer in Japan who is supposed to go to parties, pour sake, dance and exchange talks. To become a Geisha there needs to be a lot of training. This 'training' part is basically the whole drama part of the story. The struggle to become a Geisha, the competitors, dramatic young women falling in love with a very old man, all of that really carries this book. 

        

        The main character is Chiyo which later adapted the name Sayuri, who is said to have an unusual grey-blue eyes which made her stand out. She fell in love with an old man but the story gets very complicated. The main character's personality is definitely not so protagonist-wise. She is very selfish and only thinks of herself. All of this story is wrapped up in a first person point of view so reader's might find this to be quite frustating. The whole story talks about the struggles in life overall. Something often repeated in this book is how life always flows like a river.

            Sayuri's live was miserable and at the end she was saved by another Geisha, Mameha it's not necessarily a happy ending but it is quite relieving but still tough, kind of how life is. The way the author writes this is not necessarily heavy, considering my junior-high school, non native speaker self can understand it. 

                This book though is not accepted well by some literal-critical critics. The claim was this book was boring, bland and obviously, depicts a very innacurate representation of a Geisha. I personally still see some parts of "The Man is the saviour" in this book. How Sayuri falls in love with a much older men for example, was slightly peculiar. 

                        To conclude, my personal opinion obviously does not really matter as much as the critics but I think if this book was simply written as a dramatic love story during war times, I think it would blew. 

                            This book falls under the if you have free time I guess you can read this category.