When I started this blog I said that I might use it as part book review after I challenged myself to get a bit further through the Top 100 books. Currently I have read 8, I was appalled at this figure and even more so when I realised 5 were Harry Potter. (Please note: I have not set a time limit on this so even if I read 1 a year I'll be OK...provided a live to 117).
So I have now read Memoirs of Geisha. Hurray! Which I have to say I loved. I hadn't seen the film and very happy I hadn't. I really did feel that Arthur Golden's writing had taken my back to Japan in the 1930's onwards and it was v difficult to not book a ticket to Kyoto pronto.
The descriptive way Chiyo, later to become Sayuri, speaks you feel upset when she's taken from her father, in love when she meets the Chairman, terrified by the Baron, worried by Hatsumomo, respectful of Mameha and sorry for Nobu who never got his girl.
I also enjoyed reading about war torn and rationed Japan during and Post WW2 as we never hear that side of the war. At school it's always bad Germany, bad Japan but ultimately there were thousands of normal Japanese people who suffered as badly as Europeans.
Overall a very pleasing start to my Top 100 mission. I would definitely recommend to someone who wants to envelope themselves in an entirely different culture, nation and people. And even an industry that's dying/died out which seemed worryingly close to the oldest profession but somehow more innocent.
Next up...The Time Traveller's Wife...
