Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha: Amazon.ca: Books

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, April 23 2002

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"prismfae" (California) - See all my reviews

Along side Liza Dalby's "Geisha", this is the best book on the subject that I've read. It is a concise and engrossing introduction, written from a skilled hand. I appreciated in particular the history that Downer integrated into a book which is largely based on her experiences. It provided wonderful background, and I learned much from it. Her accounts are detailed and provide intriguing insight into the social lives of the Japanese.

Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha is a valuable edition to your geisha collection - don't pass it up!

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1.0 out of 5 stars Ms Downer should have named the book after herself, Nov 30 2001

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amanda basavi (Raleigh, nc) - See all my reviews

Because it was. After she gained the trust of the women, she was unkind to them. She must have been feeling very bad about her appearance and age.

This book was not an elegant read, nor was it particulary useful as an ethnography.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Thick with facinating information and personal accounts, July 30 2001

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rizabiz "rizabiz" (Westhampton Beach, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Facinating account of the life of the Geisha. If you read Arthur Golden's Memoir of a Geisha and loved it, this book is a must. It gives the reader great background about information only touched on in Golden's book. Together, they are a great compliment to the full understanding of the Geisha. I enjoyed both the historical account as well as Downer's experience in the Geisha quarters. This book somewhat dispells the notion that Geisha are merely Japan's version of a high class "call girl." The Geisha are much more than that even though there is money in exchange for their companionship or entertainment. As a fast reader, this book did take me a long time to finish. I attribute this to the fact that the book combines history and story so the reader needs to focus on the information in order to fully understand concepts and move forward. I describe it as wading through chocolate pudding, entirely enjoyable just slow.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining; fascinating portrait of a little-known world
I'm probably typical in that, after first hearing about geisha, I developed a whole bunch of misconceptions about who these women are, what they do, and how important their... Read more

Published on July 29 2001 by J. Lizzi

4.0 out of 5 stars Change your mode of thinking
This book was great! Not only did it clear up my perspective of Geisha, but also of Japan. Reading about the history of Japan helps one understand the Japanese a little more... Read more

Published on Jun 18 2001 by samb1