Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Memoirs of a Geisha

This was a pretty good read although if I had just seen the movie without reading the book I'd probably have been disappointed. The prose is light and mesmerizing (at least up through about half the way for me) and the voice is consistent which is always a surprise to me when a man writes from a woman's perspective.

The sea was violent, with waves like stones chipped into blades, sharp enough to cut. It seemed to me the world itself was feeling just as I felt. Was life nothing more than a storm that constantly washed away what had been there only a moment before, and left behind something barren and unrecognizable? ... The storm was coming in earnest now; I could hear its roar. The fisherman on the inlet began to soften as they disappeared within the curtain of the rain, and then they were gone completely. (pg. 13)

Grief is a peculiar thing; we're so helpless in the face of it. It's like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it. (pg. 255)

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