Memoirs

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Geisha are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance. Many Westerners mistake geisha for common prostitutes, but true geisha are paid to entertain, not to engage in paid sexual relationships with their clients. Why am I telling you all of this? First off, you probably didn’t know what a geisha was. Secondly, I love definitions, as I’m sure you can tell.

Memoirs is the story of Sayuri, a geisha who lived and worked during the Great Depression and then again after World War II. Sauyuri starts off known as Chiyo (it is customary to change one’s name when one becomes a geisha), a small girl who lives in a fishing village with her parents. When her mother becomes sick, her father sells Chiyo and her sister, Satsu, off to become geisha. However, only Chiyo is regarded by those of the geisha district of Kyoto to be pretty enough to become a geisha, due to her light grayish-blue colored eyes, and Satsu is sold off to become a prostitute.

Chiyo meets Hatsumomo, the geisha who currently resides at the home she has been sold to. Though beautiful, Hatsumomo is harsh, cruel, and vain. She hates Chiyo and makes her life miserable. Meanwhile, Chiyo tries to escape and find Satsu so they can run away back to their village, but ends up ruining her chances to become a geisha. One day, Chiyo is crying in the streets, when a kind gentleman helps her to her feet, gives her his handkerchief, and buys her a shaved ice. The Chairman, as this man is known, leaves such an impact on Chiyo that she decides to do whatever it takes to become a geisha so she can see him again.

This dream becomes a reality for Chiyo when Mameha, a rival geisha of Hatsumomo, takes Chiyo under her wing as her big sister. Mameha gives Chiyo experience and training, as well as the support and confidence Chiyo needs in order to become a geisha. Throughout Chiyo’s journey of becoming a geisha, she is renamed Sayuri, and attracts the attention of some well-to-do men, such as Dr. Crab, Mameha’s baron danna (patron), and Nobu, who happens to be the Chairman’s business partner. Sayuri soon becomes known as one of the most alluring and entertaining of all geisha in Kyoto. Hatsumomo tries to retaliate, but is kicked out of the home as a commoner, no longer having a place which to call home and base her business from.

All seems to go well until World War II breaks out and the people of Kyoto are forced to either hide or wait for the bombs to drop. Nobu secures a place for Sayuri to hide, promising her that when this is all over, he will be her danna. Sayuri goes, and she is grateful to Nobu, but knows if he becomes her danna, there will be no chance for her and the Chairman, though up to this point, he has been friendly yet aloof with her.

The war comes to a close and Sayuri returns to Kyoto to be a geisha. Nobu asks her to help him get funding for his business by entertaining the Minister, a gross old man who finds Sayuri attractive. Sayuri realizes that if she engages in a relationship with the Minister, Nobu will want nothing to do with her, and she will be free to tell the Chairman how she feels for him. She devises a plan in which Pumpkin, an old friend and housemate of Sayuri’s, would lead Nobu into a room where he would see Sayuri and the Minister involved with one another. Pumpkin has been harboring feelings of hate for Sayuri ever since Sayuri was adopted by the house they lived at, and decides to get back at Sayuri by showing up with the Chairman rather than Nobu. Sayuri is devastated and feels all hope is gone.

Several weeks later, Sayuri is summoned to a teahouse. She goes, thinking she will have to commit to Nobu as her danna. She enters and finds someone she wasn’t expecting: the Chairman. He explains that he was responsible form Mameha taking Sayuri in and has wanted to be her danna ever since he saw her. Her actions with the Minister, her realizes, were an attempt to distance herself from Nobu so they could be together. The two then spend the rest of the Chairman’s life happily together.

Though the story may seem cliche, I have to say that it seemed new and exciting around every corner. The author does a brilliant job of immersing the reader in Japanese culture and custom without being confusing or cryptic. This beautifully woven story was captivating, and I found myself unable to put it down. I found myself wanting Sayuri to succeed, sympathizing with her situations, understanding while not agreeing with her relationship with the Minister, and thrilled with her when she finally unites with the Chairman. This is an easy recommendation for me to make. Memoirs of a Geisha is a beautifully woven story that I quickly and easily fell in love with and stayed in love with throughout my reading of it.

Bleak, All is Bleak!

Bleak House, by Charles Dickens

I have to confess that though I have read great chunks of Dickens, I have never read one of his books from cover to cover before for this reason: I can't stand him. I realize that I am treading on dangerous ground here because Dickens is not really an author one can be ambivalent about, one either loves or detests him and both sides defend their arguments vitriolically. And even though I find myself in the second category, I can still appreciate Bleak House for the themes it addresses.

It is a (horrendously long) parable on the state of the British legal system of the day, which was an antiquated mess of tradition, habit, conflicting rules and regulations, and in some cases rampant corruption. Dickens himself worked as a law clerk and found the arcane system to immensely frustrating at best and ineffectual at worst. The driving force of Bleak House's story is the court case Jarndyce v. Jarndyce which, while it is never fully explained, is a case involving a substantial inheritance that has dragged on for generations and consumed massive amounts of time and money without ever reaching a successful conclusion. There are so many people involved in the case that it has finally reached the status of one huge running joke within the Chancery.

Nearly everyone in the story is connected to this case in some way. Initially we meet Lady Dedlock, a beautiful young woman married to a man much older than herself, who is a claimant in the case and is represented by her husband's attorney Mr. Tulkinghorn, a prominent member of legal society. Through him we are introduced to an innumerable host of lawyers, clerks, landlords, tenants, shopkeepers, tramps, moneylenders, and the dregs of London's slums, all of whom are entangled in the secrets of those embroiled in Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, either intentionally or by association, as the plot progresses.

The narration goes back and forth between an omniscient narrator and Esther Somerson, a child who was raised by a spartan, vicious woman (later revealed to be her aunt) and was taken in by the generous gentleman, a Mr. John Jarndyce, along with two cousins of her own age, Richard and Ada. The pair eventually fall in love with one another but their guardian insists that before they may marry, Richard must engage himself in a suitable profession. However Richard, a rather fickle young man who has not been able hold to any of his endeavors, soon becomes obsessed with the Jarndyce case and determines that if he can finally push it to conclusion, he and Ada will be able to live off the profits and a profession will not be required.

In the usual mix one finds in Victorian literature, it is eventually discovered that Esther is Lady Dedlock's illegitimate child from a pre-marital affair, nearly dies of an awful disease, but is spared and goes on to find true love. She is also a thoroughly uninspiring heroine who is constantly dismissing herself as a worthy narrator, is ever filled with maidenly surprise when someone shows her regard, and generally goes about being a typical paragon of Victorian feminine virtue. She has her uses as a narrator but I could not find much use for her except as a dull character to drive a romantic plot forward in a book that is otherwise allegorical.

For, in the end, that is what the book is about: the flawed nature of the system and how in the end all who are involved with it are eventually consumed. Consumption is a main theme. Richard becomes obsessed with the case to the point of sinking heavily into debt and bad health, and though he pushes it to a conclusion in which he and Ada are named the heirs, the litigation have gone on so long there is nothing left to inherit and he dies a broken man. Tulkinghorn, obsessed with finding out the secrets in Lady Dedlock's past, manipulates a series of stupid or miserable people to do his bidding and ends up getting shot by and informant he refuses to help after she has outlived her usefulness to him. Another character helps drive her family into destitution while she campaigns for missionary efforts in Africa, all the which quite failing to notice the miserable state of her husband and children. The most important minor character, an insane shopkeeper who sells nothing and hordes everything (who ironically turns out to posses the concluding paperwork in the Jarndyce case), serves as a metaphor for the Chancery court itself and actually dies from spontaneous human combustion: an allegory of the legal system destroying itself from its own uselessness.

I still wouldn't classify Dickens as a favorite author after reading this, which may seem odd because I find the book valuable in and off itself (it helped spur public opinion in favor of reforming the court system after its publication). I also found the plot, even in its predictability, to be mildly engrossing and some of the characters engaging. And I can also say that the themes were interesting and that Dickens should be valued for pointing out, as many Victorian writers did, the flaws and incongruities of his society and how they often failed to live up to their own expectations.

So, Calliope, you ask, why the loathing? In the end, it's just a personal dislike of his writing style I think. Bleak House, like may of Dickens other novels, was written to be published serially in parts and such works often served as the soap operas of their day: over dramatic and driven by characters rather than plot (though I think Dickens does a good job of maintaining his theme throughout). Though I enjoyed the story, Dickens' verbosity and love of flowery imagery can be suffocating and it took me twice as long to finish as it should have because I just didn't like reading it, but when I decided to view it as the allegory it was intended to be instead of trying to make myself like it I got on much better.

Bleak House is an important read and everyone should get through it at least once (Dickens fans, as many times as you'd like, I wash my hands of you), but it's importance as an examination of the failing legal system and shortcomings of Victorian society need to be understood for its importance to be felt.

The Meaning of Atonement

Atonement by Ian McEwen

Have you ever done something wrong, really wrong? Something you’ve felt guilty for for years? Have you asked yourself over and over, why did I do it and what could I do to fix it?

Atonement is defined as compensation for a wrong. In a religious context, it means being forgiven for a sin by God after making a compensation for the sin. In a more worldly view, it means being forgiven for a wrongdoing by the person who you wronged after making a compensation for that wrong.

In McEwen’s Atonement, we meet an interesting cast of characters who live in a pre-World War II England: most importantly, 13 year old Briony; her 23 year old sister Cecelia; the 16 year old cousin, Lola; the rich visitor, Paul Marshall; and the landscaper, 23 year old Robbie. The scene starts with Briony writing a play, which she will cast her cousins to act in when Briony’s older brother comes home with his rich friend, Paul Marshall. Meanwhile, Cecilia, who has just returned from college, has a run-in with Robbie, the landscaper who grew up with Cecilia and who also goes to her same university. Robbie realizes he is in love with Cecilia and decides to write her a note. In drafting his notes, one of them states his bawdy thoughts as is, while one is written more for the reader. While he is writing this, Briony is caught up in the drama of what the play should be, and runs to the yard to fantasize about what the world will be when she is an all-important author in it. When Robbie finishes, he bids Briony to deliver the letter to Cecilia so she can ponder the letter. While she is running to do her job, Robbie realizes he has put the wrong letter in the envelope; the bawdy one is on its way to Cecilia. Cecilia receives the letter and is at first shocked. However, this shock makes her realize that she, too, loves Robbie. They meet and begin a romance. However, Briony has read the letter, and in her young mind, believes only a lunatic could write something so horrid. She begins to make him a sort of devil in her mind, so much so that when Lola is attacked and raped by someone at the party, Briony instantly blames Robbie, although Mr. Marshall bears an odd scratch on his face that wasn’t there before. Briony’s testimony, along with the letter Cecilia received, are enough to condemn Robbie to prison for raping Lola.

This, however, is only the beginning of the story. The years pass, and Briony grows up. As she grows, she starts to see what really happened that night. As this realization comes to her, she realizes what she has done to Robbie, in sending him to prison as an innocent man. She realizes what she’s done to Cecilia and Robbie, by separating them in their love, causing Cecilia to abandon her family. So she comes up with a story where they end up together and Briony tells the truth. But with what history has brought England and these characters, their reunion never happens. Briony has done something so terribly wrong, but she can never make it better. There is no atonement to be had. Because she made up the story, she is the god of the situation. And while gods provide atonement for their subjects, there is no atonement for God.

I have to admit that, at the beginning, I was a bit skeptical about a story surrounding a girl and her silly play. However, McEewen’s style was intriguing, and I figured there had to be more to a story called Atonement. So I kept reading. And I am so glad that I did. As the text unraveled itself before me, I was amazed at what an involved and intricate story this was. The characters were rich and deep, and though each has his or her character flaws, I found it truly hard to hate them, especially Briony’s character, who is the reason behind the whole fiasco to begin with. When the story wraps up with its explanation of what atonement means for someone like Briony, who created the story, I stopped dead in my tracks. I’d never thought about God needing an atonement and how real it must be that, according to the setup, he couldn’t have one. According to scriptures, if he could, he would “cease to be God.” Not only did this book make me rethink points of view and see a difficult (for the characters) story as beautiful and enthralling, it made me consider the origins of atonement and what a great burden that would be on any of us to have none available to us.

I should note that if you are averse to some swearing and would be offended by the bawdy letter and ensuing romantic rendezvous that this book might not be the best choice for you. However, for those (like myself) who don’t have a problem with this, I can fully put my support behind Ian McEwen’s Atonement.

Elegance A La Mode

Elegance: A Complete Guide for Every Woman Who Wants to be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions, by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux


I first found this book during one of my frequent Amazon.com surfs and was intrigued by the title because elegance, as a concept, seems to be rather antiquated. I have heard barely a handful of people described as elegant (aside from Oscar red carpet critiques) in my life, and it seems such a broad idea that I couldn't imagine how anyone could undertake to writing a guide on how to be elegant. However, Dariaux states right off that she is limiting her guidance to the area of expertise that she knew well: fashion. In the 1940s and 1950s she created a line of Haute Couture costume jewelry and a minor design house of her own before becoming the directress of salons for the Nina Ricci house of design in Paris. Apart from being her career, creating a beautiful "look" for a client was clearly her passion and her book is an undertaking to give women what she saw as the very basics of good taste.

Upon an initial glance through of the books, which is organized alphabetically by topic (Accessories, Button, Chic, etc.), I could not help but think, "The proper way to wear hats? Girdles? Well, this will be horribly out of date, but I'm sure it will still be interesting." Not twenty minutes into reading I was choking on the humble pie that Dariaux and tossed, firmly but of course elegantly, into my teeth. And I was taking both stock of my closet and notes!

Granted some of the topics she covers are genuinely behind the times for most of us (ball gowns, debutante parties, girdles and other "unmentionables," and the idea of it being a necessity to change one's outfits several times a day), but only a few pages in I was surprised to read the words "skinny belts," and not to much further on "espadrilles," "knee high socks enjoying a revival," and the essential nature of "a few vintage pieces." Wait a second, what decade was this written in again?

Almost effortlessly, Dariaux manages to remind the reader that while fashion has obviously shifted, style remains essentially the same. Age is no boundary to style, she proclaims, "A woman can be elegant until the end of her days...don't give up wearing high heels; just choose them lower and sturdier." She covers how to dress for any occasion and every type of clothing from overcoats to negligees, but most important what she emphasizes why dressing well is so essential: it is the outer portrayal of the battle we all fight to emphasize our good points and minimize (if not hide) our bad ones.

Occasionally, in spite of her claim to stick only to fashion, little gems of her personal philosophy leak through, which actually form some of the most engrossing categories of the book. Between the categories "Furs" and "Gloves" are several paragraphs dedicated to "Gestures" and how the effects of a wardrobe from the fingertips of Christian Dior himself are completely overshadowed by small acts of inelegant behavior (which include things from adjusting one's bra to speaking too loudly at the table). Even taking photos has a formula in the Gospel According to Dariaux: re-edit your photo album ever ten years or so to avoid embarrassment. She even offers up her opinion on the three types of husbands 1) the Blind Man who takes two years to notice your new suit, who's advantage is that he lets you dress in peace, 2) the Tyrant who thinks he knows best and invariably wants his wife to dress like his mother, and 3) the Ideal Husband who is genuinely interested in your clothes and admires you more than any other woman in the world. "If you possess this dream man, hang on to him," she cautions, "He is extremely rare." And cubic zircons? "[they] may be classified as 'imitations' and for this reason they do not really belong in an elegant wardrobe."

Reading her book I got the feeling that I would feel twice as nervous being introduced to Madame Dariaux than the Queen of England! Somehow in the privacy of my own home, stretched out on my couch at eleven o'clock at night she managed to make me feel unfit to be in her presence dressed as I was in my tee shirt and sweatpants. I found myself patting myself on the back when I recalled certain items in my closet that obviously would have received approval and inwardly cringing to remember certain lapses of taste, some more recent than I care to admit. I had a spontaneous and irresistible craving for mink (even though I don't wear fur) and simultaneously plotted out a limited and tight budget for a fabulously French wardrobe. I kicked myself for not preserving the lustre of my pearls by wearing them enough and committed to buying more cashmere and less Old Navy.

This book may be dangerous for your health, fashionably speaking; it will make want to storm your closet and rip half of your clothes to shreds, but it will also remind you that such behavior would probably be less than refined, surely you can have a nice, quiet bonfire somewhere and no one will be the wiser. You will find yourself perplexed at the things women subjected themselves to half a century ago in the name of beauty before realizing that the process is little altered today. And you may even feel the smallest craving, as I did, that the days of veils, hats, really well made gloves, and true dedication to elegance is fading.

The List

So as Calliope and I mentioned, we'll be hacking our way through several "must read" book lists. The first list we shall tackle is the BBC Top 100, found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml. For those of you who are sitting there, wondering what said list contains, let me go ahead and tell you:

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

We aren't going in any particular order, but as we both have a goal to read all 100 on the list of the top 100, be expecting quite a bit from here.

Support Group

Hi, I'm Calliope, and I'm a bookaholic...(Hi, Calliope!)...and this is my friend Echo, who is just as guilty as me.

I...I...I just can't stop myself!

To say that we love books is a gross understatement. We buy books constantly: Barnes and Noble, Borders, airport bookstores, corner bookstands, you name it we've shopped it. We own more books than shoes (and we are pretty addicted to those too!).

It is said that admittance is the first step and so to help ourselves and other bookaholics cope, we have decided to talk about it.

However, since we've decided to talk about more books we're not sure if we'll alleviate or exacerbate the problem...

Hush. Bookies of the world, we hear you. And we understand your plight in finding good books to read. That's where we come in.

We're going to do the major legwork for you in finding that elusive creature: A Good Read. You're welcome in advance.

We're a teacher (me) and writer (Calliope) but most importantly we're book hounds with a passion for reading. Plus we have pretty good tastes, I think.

Oh definately! We'll be reviewing books, and we're not limiting ourselves. Classics from centuries ago to the present day, all countries, from all sorts of "You Must Read This Before You Die" lists, and from our own personal jaunts through literature.

Think you can handle the reading load? Try and keep up!