Word: chiyo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Chiyo's career as Sayuri begins when her elderly father, distraught over his ailing wife, permits her to be placed in okiya, or training houses for geisha, at the urging of a rather dubious local entrepreneur...
Golden's new book is a sort of makeup remover. Memoirs of a Geisha starts at that bare rim of skin and gradually dissolves the entire facade of Gion, Kyoto's geisha district, during the 1930s and 1940s. The story of young Chiyo's transformation into the geisha Nitta Sayuri is not merely the tale of one woman but the chronicle of a particular place...
Cinderella led a life of relative ease and comfort when compared with Chiyo's existence in the okiya. Chiyo carries out a grueling round of chores fueled by rations scarcely sufficient to sustain life, tormented always by the dominant geisha, Hatsumomo, who sees the beautiful Chiyo as a threat. A failed runaway attempt cuts short her training, but then the famous geisha Mameha takes a sudden and surprising interest in Chiyo and her unusual blue-gray eyes. Chiyo is permitted to resume her training, becoming the geisha Sayuri and beginning her slow ascent to the heights of Gion...
These lapses are especially evident when Sayuri is still the young Chiyo Golden seems uncomfortable with the voice of a young girl and often strikes note of rather false naivete. As Chiyo enters the okiya and quickly grows up Golden becomes more assured and his prose finds its natural, comfortable rhythm. From this point on, the majority of his startling observations an images have a delicate beauty, almost a if they were adapted from Japanes proverbs...