Wow, it's been over a month...

Can words even define my laziness?

I just finished reading Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki--she's the geisha who was the chief informant for Memoirs of a Geisha--and I can see how she was unhappy with the portrayal of geisha in Memoirs of a Geisha. I know some of the reviews on Amazon.com complained about how she was awfully full of herself, but I found the book to be a lot more refreshing than Memoirs of a Geisha in some ways--particularly in how Mineko chose to live her life. I was really dissatisfied with Sayuri in the end of Memoirs of a Geisha so I was both pleased at the fact that Mineko had more of a spine and disappointed that Arthur Golden chose to go a particular route with Sayuri. It was interesting finding the little bits and pieces of real people that made it into the characters of Memoirs of a Geisha, but at the same time in retrospective it made the book seem really unreal. Like how certain characters from Memoirs of a Geisha were able to carry on in a particular manner when their apparent real-life inspiration was beaten down in short order. ^^;;; Ah, well...maybe Geisha, a Life wasn't as romantic as Memoirs of a Geisha, but I'd rather hear about geisha from a real geisha herself...

I read it in less than a day, ha ha! Coinstar bought it for me.