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Title: Geisha : A Life by Mineko Iwasaki ISBN: 0-7434-4432-9 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.52 (40 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Deserves a better translator/editor
Comment: I enjoyed the story all right, but the many, many grammatical and word usage errors were so distracting that I was forcing myself to keep reading after only the first two chapters. As a Japanese translator and meticulous editor myself, I was deeply disappointed by the quality of this book; as a rabid reader, I don't think I'd ever seen such shoddy workmanship make its way to press.
I'm not sure a better translation or edit would fix the problems other reviewers mentioned, but it would have helped keep me focused on the story, rather than on its poor presentation. Shame on Ms. Brown and Ms. Bestler for not doing a better job.
Rating: 2
Summary: A little boring in spots... didn't always flow well.
Comment: I found this book to be mildly interesting but it did not seem to flow well and some spots were boring and hard to get through. I also have read the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" and if you interested in reading about geisha, I strongly recommend that book over Mineko Iwasaki's "Geisha: A life". I got this book from the library and I am very glad I did not purchase it because after I read it I would not want to own it. Overall- a mediocre book.
Rating: 5
Summary: We sell art, not bodies
Comment: This autobiography gives us not only an insight into the education, the working conditions and the social status of a geisha, but also into the Japanese society as a whole.
To give a few examples: selling children for sex slavery became forbidden only in the year 1959, or, the existing extreme differences of wealth (some people could pay nearly every day extremely expensive geisha parties, while poor people were forces to abandon their children).
Besides more personal intimate confidences, the author sketches a good picture of the hardship (sometimes only one hour of sleep per night) of the education and the working conditions, the extreme jealousy and fierce competition inside the geisha guild, the sexual morals (allowance of extramarital relationships) and the colossal sums involved in the geisha business.
Not to be missed by the Japan aficionados.
I should also recommend the works of Ian Buruma, Lisa Louis and Nicholas Bornoff for a broader perspective on the Japanese entertainment culture.
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Title: Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda, G. G. Rowley ISBN: 0231129505 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Geisha by Liza Crihfield Dalby ISBN: 0520204956 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.15 |
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Title: Women of the Pleasure Quarters : The Secret History of the Geisha by Lesley Downer ISBN: 0767904907 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 09 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Memoirs of a Geisha : A Novel by Arthur Golden ISBN: 0679781587 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 10 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Geisha : The Life, the Voices, the Art by Jodi Cobb ISBN: 037570180X Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 27 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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