Last night, I finished reading "Memoirs of a Geisha". I had previously seen the film, just over a decade ago, which I found to be difficult viewing - it's a happy, romantic film about child abuse and prostitution, which really doesn't sit well. So I was curious to see how (or if) the book differed.
And the answer is it didn't, much. The plot-line of the book was essentially the same, and although the book was longer and therefore more detailed, a lot of that detail was actually conveyed quite effectively in the film - if you give a loving and detailed description of something in a book, this can be translated to film in seconds simply by showing the thing itself, which they did.
So, the book was well-written and presented, in the same way that the film was well made and acted. But it still remained a happy, romantic story about how a young girl was abused and then had her virginity sold to the highest bidder. Which remains more than a little problematic.
#47: "Memoirs of a Geisha", by Arthur Golden (a book from The List)
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