Title: Memoirs of a Geisha
First published: 1997
Description: 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.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.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Subjects: Social life and customs, Literature, Open Library Staff Picks, Prostitution, Fiction, Historical fiction, Geishas, Women, History, Fictional Works Publication Type, Japan, Historia, Mujeres, Ficción, Japan, fiction, Fiction, historical, Large type books, Fiction, historical, general, Social conditions, Reading Level-Grade 11, Reading Level-Grade 12, Mœurs et coutumes, Histoire, Manners and customs, American fiction, Translations into Korean, Korean language materials, Fiction, general, Fictional Works [Publication Type]
Places: Japan, Kyoto
Time periods: 20th century