Henry Avila's Reviews > Memoirs of a Geisha

In a small Japanese fishing village of Yoroido, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, a child Chiyo Sakamoto 9, lives with an ancient father, dying mother and older sister Satsu in a dilapidated home, leaning over a cliff the year 1929, things are tough and will get harder, as the Great Depression is about to commence...the impoverished family needs help and the two sisters are sold. Pretty Chiyo with beautiful eyes, to become a geisha after a long apprenticeship and the unlucky, plain Satsu, an abused prostitute....In a house that never becomes a home, in the former royal capital of Kyoto, in the section called Gion where most geisha live, and the tea houses to entertain rich men, there the scared girl is under the complete control of three money- hungry women, who show no pity Granny, (she has coins in her heart) the matriarch and her two adopted daughters, Mother the real boss and Auntie, they love nicknames, both are as unfeeling as Granny. The only genuine geisha in residence is stunning Hatsumomo, as beautiful as she is detestable and takes an odd, instant hatred to the little girl and torments her nonstop. One day while doing an errand, the child starts crying in the streets, her miserable life has no joy, a man known as the chairman , the owner of an important electronics business stops and comforts Chiyo, leaving her his monogrammed handkerchief, it will be the most prized possession the girl has, at last someone cares... she falls in love and this will remain forever. After an aborted escape try with her sister, she falls from the roof of a neighbor's house injuring herself, things become even more dismal, Chiyo is demoted to a lowly maid in the house, no more school to learn her profession, to the elation of cruel Hatsumomo. Still life is cloudy and is never foreseen, even the fortune -tellers, the geisha go to often can't predict accurately... the most successful , glamorous, admired geisha in Kyoto , Mameha, becomes her "Big Sister", a mentor that can help any woman rise to the top, how strange. Her name is changed later to "Sayuri", she returns to school, becomes a fine dancer and does a solo at the annual celebrations in the local theater, her poster is painted by a famous alcoholic artist in town, the career prospers, but the chairman, that Sayuri constantly meets in the tea house parties, ( where the men get drunk on Sake, listen to stories told, watch the singing the dancing and music played by the geisha) is rather distant, and doesn't recognize the grown- up woman ... Gruff Nobu, scarred and disabled in a war, the chairman's best friend and second -in -command at the electronics firm, likes Chiyo/Sayuri , he her love can never interfere, too much respect for his colleague, and they are so close, it is a sad, hopeless situation for Chiyo/ Sayuri ... The years roll by, and war is on the horizon, change is coming, it always is...the now renowned geisha, awaits...The most famous, popular, geisha Mineko Iwasaki, now retired, ( one of the characters is based on her, in the novel) greatly helped Mr. Arthur Golden , in research, revealing to him in confidence, the secrets of the mysterious life of these women for the first time much to her later regret...