Memoirs of a Geisha

Right from our childhood we have been told this is an epic story that is a classic book. I always use to wonder who makes them epics or what do they contain to be termed as classics. If you also would like to know then this is a book for you – Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

In case you are wondering like me what a Geisha is – It is a Girl who performs at tea houses in Japan. I always wanted to know nuances and aspects of different cultures and when twined with such a touching story it becomes a lethal combination. It all starts with two young girls in a Japanese village and moved on to their life which has succumbed to the circumstantial and fatal blows of life. Entire childhood went into coming terms with the new found life or rather slavery.

The minute details like dressing, rituals and social intricacies are explained in an elaborative and yet spellbound way. How a girl child is coping with a traumatic childhood with a little bit of vengeance and indifference together and then fighting back to rule (or if not “rule” then to make her place in) the same society is remarkable. Very subtly Arthur has roped in a love story in the entire second half of the book which comes in the fore front towards the end. You would experience the meaning of “Memoirs” throughout this read.

Ending of the book is apt, character depiction is marvelous and I feel overall this score above then most of the books I have read so far.

Mistry’s FINE BALANCE

By now it must be evident that I am having an “all asian fest” in my literary world and the writer of the month is Rohinton Mistry. Have been hearing about him for a long time and finally decided to have a go at “A Fine Balance”.

The story revolves around the lives of a group of people during emergency times in India. This group is a mix of an old generation Parsi Lady, two contemporary tailors and a young ambitious lad. The story starts by bringing this group together and then visiting their life saga individually. I was intrigued with an insight in Parsi culture and at the same time how the caste division was still evident in India after all these years of independence. The young lad represents any of us having our own set of values (which coincidentally does not match with our previous generation each and every time), who is enthusiasts enough to carve a way of his own.

The writing style is gripping and the twists and turns make it a spellbound read, with various characters chipping in seamlessly playing their part and vanishing in an equally unobserving way. Then there comes the ending part which as per me is the most sad and ironical one. The ending of the story is like a series of catastrophe which takes the reader through various emotions and unfortunately all sad and gloomy. Overall a very interesting read but I feel the ending could have been more “balanced”, but as they say for this particular book probably “journey is the reward”.