Word: sayuri
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Golden's debut novel, chronicling the lush andexotic life of a geisha in the Japan of the 30sand 40s, has been wildly successful. InMemoirs, Sayuri, an aging geisha recountsher youth spent in the Okiya, a cloisteredbrothel where women trained for the rigors of theGeisha art. Hatsumomo is the primadonna geisha ofthe Okiya, supporting a household of youngapprentices and aged ex-geishas. From the momentSayuri is sold into the Okiya Hatsumomorecognizes her as a challenge to her supremacy andspends the rest of the novel plotting Sayuri'sdemise...
...Sayuri once notes that "the point wasn't to become a geisha, but to be one," but Golden wisely devotes the bulk of the book to the becoming. Golden has done an exquisite job of research. His comprehensive knowledge of the world of a geisha adds verisimilitude as Sayuri describes her reactions to her increasing knowledge of a geisha's life. Her descriptions of how to wear a kimono, or what a geisha's daily lessons are like, or how a geisha is expected to behave in the presence of men are among the best passages in the book: educational...
Oddly enough, men play almost an incidental role in Sayuri's life as a geisha. She spends her evening hours being attractive and attentive to the men she entertains and excites at the scores of parties she pops in and out of, yet scarcely sees another man besides her dresser at any other time. The main figures in a geisha's life are all female. Even during the evening, while seemingly enthralled with the men she is with, a geisha is likely to be secretly worrying about a catty rivalry with some other geisha rather than about the men themselves...
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...
Golden would have written a different book if he wished to expose the ugliness of geisha culture; Sayuri ultimately leads a happy life and is satisfied with her lot as a geisha. Yet hints of that ugliness appear even during the most positive parts of his portrayal of geisha's life. The white makeup that transforms an ordinary woman into lovely geisha was once lead-based; this malignant makeup slowly poisoned generation of geisha. Similarly, the most expensive and coveted of a geisha's many beauty ointments is a face cream made of nightingale droppings. Golden has taken even such...