i really thought that this book was brilliant and one of my favorite stories. whenever people ask me to recommend a book, this always escapes as one of my first ten that come to mind. what’s most ironic about this book, is that it is written by a nonJapanese man, taking the first person narrative of a Japanese female. it takes us along the journey of a young blue eyed fictional girl, Nitta Sayuri, who is sold into a geisha house, only to be treated with chastisement, unfairness, and all the aspects one can expect from a hierarchical society. She’s faced with rivals and friends, the novel being exquisitely rich with as colorful characters as the imagery itself. The reader is saturated with traditions, arts, culture, their life’s conditions, restrictions, rules, beauty, and discipline. The book heightens in many layers and subplots, with elements as love and illusion, appearance and deciet, truth and beauty. Overall, you are transported into the secret world of geisha, and realize that every action is an art of seduction, and an art of beauty… it’s a really really great book. 5.0 stars

definitely one of my favorite books. i read this when i was still in middleschool, and i remember being so moved after i read it. it’s an emotionally stirring critique on humanity, and the proportional understanding of it with one’s intelligence or ignorance. it’s about this man, Charlie Gordon who is mentally challenged. In his perspective, man is good, but only because he fails to conceive their true nature through his ignorant condition. But this perspective gives him happiness. His life is then changed when he’s offered a chance to partake in an experiment, where he meets the lab mouse Algernon, who also had undergone the experimental procedure. After all his meds kick in, he progressively gains intellect (progresses on his reading and writing) but also in understanding and assessing everything around him- noticing that the world isn’t as wonderful as he remembered it to be. He’s fully capable of comparing his present state to his past condition, and remembers all his experiences, but only does he now fully “understand” all the deeper implications involved with his friends, with relationships, with his family, and instead of happiness through his new gained intellect, he realizes the ramification of “knowing” and begins […]

this was mandatory read for my World Literature @ Rowan University. The reason why this book was a straight up five stars is because this was the book that opened up my mind to Communist China at the time that Moa ruled it. It fascinated me beyond my understanding, not that I turned communist…hahah…but because i started saturating myself with the history beginning from precommunism to the death of Mao. I memorized dates, timelines, political strategies, historical places, conflicts, and the country’s changing sentiment. This book began the next string of books that i read for leisure concerning Communist China, and even preCommunist china. It also opened my semi-dormant interest in movies that dealt with the same history. It was a great opening book to how women strived in China at that time as well. The book is told by a first person narrative. It serves as an autobiographical novel of Anchee Min’s experiences from when she was a teenager, under a societal false consciousness during the cultural revolution headed by Mao’s mistress. It was a deep disturbing book…but really awakened a great interest in me…so much so that i still get stopped at B&N when i see a book […]

after reading Red Azalea, i quickly went to B&N and bought myself this copy to add to my Anchee Min collection. I had grown more interest in the woman behind Min’s small character in Red Azalea, but one of the greatest roles in communist china when Mao ruled- Madame Mao. She was commissioned to lead the cultural revolution when Mao’s political tactics had feigned and digressed. she stimulated the youth of china to strictly follow the ideals of Mao and become their “gestapo,” turning in everyone who was nonproletariat. This novel is based on real historical figures, but Min had to try to write in order to comply with history, even though she herself was not in an omnipotent viewpoint. But she tried to capture the life and dynamics of this great female figure who had such raging passions equalling even her male counterparts. The story reads very quickly enough, and captures interest easily, so, if you want a great book and want to know this woman, pick it up…good time… 5.0 stars