Memoirs of a geisha – arthur golden. Wow. This is an amazing book. Presented as the account of an actual geisha who lived in New York it is in fact completely fictional, but based on a lot of research into how geishas actually lived. The story centers around a young girl who is taken away from her family at an early age, to grow up as a geisha in gion. The okiya she grows up in has its share of hardships, centered around an antagonistic older geisha, but eventually the main character prevails. Central to the story is a thread of unrequited love, the trigger for why our heroine settles down to the life of a geisha. It’s a complete page turner, and the saddest part of the book is when its finished.