Reading the Memoirs of a Geisha
I've less than 100 pages to go before I finish this novel by Arthur Golden.
Frankly, I am not very impressed with the whole Geisha thing. Yes, it is not a bad book, but if the movie is based on the book, then I think there is no big deal about this story on Sayuri(played by Ziyi Zhang). The 'action' is more between Hatsumomo (Gong Li) and Mameha (Michelle Yeoh). So unless the movie is adapted and made more interesting for movie goers, there is nothing much to see.
Simply put, it's about a girl being sold to become a geisha, who unfortunately was caught between 2 feuding geishas who uses her as a pawn. Just that it is set in the Japan World War II period, amid the geisha community which no one seems to know much about.. Unless one is a Japanese buff and is mad about those geisha trivia, frankly who cares if the color of the collar worn by an apprentice geisha is red, while a geisha wears a white one, and does anyone need to know that the first night of a (virgin) geisha is sold to the highest bidder and it called mizuage? If it aims to fascinate or be mysterios, then sorry, I think it failed to do that, at least to me.
My ratings:-
Language : 3
Too flowery for me, but I think it is necessary considering Geishas are supposed to be artisans, so this being a memoir of a geisha, there is no escaping this sort of language.
Plot: 2
I've read more interesting plot than this. The usual cat fights between jealous women, love that was not reciprocal, bad people suffered in the end, good people triumphed, etc. All the standard soap opera stuff. Nothing new nor fresh.
Effect: 1
No symphathy, no awe, no after thoughts, none what-so-ever for the characters in the novel. It's those novels that I read and felt nothing. No urges to have a second or third read.
VERDICT:
Unless you have some time to kill, or you want to start a conversion by throwing around geisha trivia to show your intelligence, else spend your time on other books.
Out of 5, I will only give it a 2.
Frankly, I am not very impressed with the whole Geisha thing. Yes, it is not a bad book, but if the movie is based on the book, then I think there is no big deal about this story on Sayuri(played by Ziyi Zhang). The 'action' is more between Hatsumomo (Gong Li) and Mameha (Michelle Yeoh). So unless the movie is adapted and made more interesting for movie goers, there is nothing much to see.
Simply put, it's about a girl being sold to become a geisha, who unfortunately was caught between 2 feuding geishas who uses her as a pawn. Just that it is set in the Japan World War II period, amid the geisha community which no one seems to know much about.. Unless one is a Japanese buff and is mad about those geisha trivia, frankly who cares if the color of the collar worn by an apprentice geisha is red, while a geisha wears a white one, and does anyone need to know that the first night of a (virgin) geisha is sold to the highest bidder and it called mizuage? If it aims to fascinate or be mysterios, then sorry, I think it failed to do that, at least to me.
My ratings:-
Language : 3
Too flowery for me, but I think it is necessary considering Geishas are supposed to be artisans, so this being a memoir of a geisha, there is no escaping this sort of language.
Plot: 2
I've read more interesting plot than this. The usual cat fights between jealous women, love that was not reciprocal, bad people suffered in the end, good people triumphed, etc. All the standard soap opera stuff. Nothing new nor fresh.
Effect: 1
No symphathy, no awe, no after thoughts, none what-so-ever for the characters in the novel. It's those novels that I read and felt nothing. No urges to have a second or third read.
VERDICT:
Unless you have some time to kill, or you want to start a conversion by throwing around geisha trivia to show your intelligence, else spend your time on other books.
Out of 5, I will only give it a 2.
posted by imm @ 10:34 PM
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