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Arthur Golden was born and brought up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is a 1978 graduate of Harvard College with a degree in art history, specialising in Japanese art. In 1980 he earned an MA in Japanese history from Columbia University where he also learned Mandarin Chinese. After a summer at Beijing University, he went to work at a magazing in Tokyo. In 1988 he recieved an MA in English from Boston University. He has lived and worked in Japan, and since that time has been teaching writing and literature in the Boston area. He now lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife and children
This is the kind of book that you just have to persuade your spouse, friends, colleagues, relations or even chance acquaintances to read. It sets itself up as a transcript of the memoirs of a genuine geisha, as told to an American professor of Japanese history. Gradually an extraordinary story unfolds, revealing the tragic, touching tale of the transformation of Chiyo, the daughter of a poor fisherman into Sayuri, a renowned and much sought-after geisha in Kyoto in the 1930s. The story, told without sentimentality, delves beneath the glamorous, erotic facade of these immaculate women constrained by centuries of tradition, rules and regulations, to expose the grim reality of their lives. Our heroine, like the rest of her fellow geishas, is chained to the profession thrust upon her, by insurmountable debts accrued forcibly in her name. Behind the elegant and delicious images of Japanese prints lies hidden a world of intrigue, formality and cruelty. An altogether remarkable and riveting account that has one almost believing it really is a true autobiography. The sheer bulk of fascinating, often painful, yet sometimes joyful, detail of this uniquely Japanese stylized way of life woven into the gentle Sayuri's story make fascinating and enthralling reading. Review by SOPHIE GRIGSON (Kirkus UK)
