Memoirs of a Geisha Style

Memoirs of a Geisha Style

Point of View

Arthur Golden originally wrote his narrative in a third person style. His first draft was eight hundred pages long and told the story of a geisha in Kyoto from another person's perspective. After discussing his novel with a genuine geisha who had lived and worked in Kyoto at that time Golden realized that a lot of his material was factually inaccurate. His second draft was more technically accurate but still narrated the story from another character's perspective; a style that was unpopular with publishers as it made the narrative dry and dull. His final draft is written in a first person style from the point of view of the fictional geisha Sayuri. Although Mineko, the genuine geisha, helped Golden with a lot of information about the time and life in Kyoto, it is in no way a true story of her life.

The translator's note at the beginning of the...
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