Memoirs of the Orient

Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha-the fictionalized memoirs of a geisha set in the Gion district of Kyoto between the 1930s and 1950s-became a bestseller in the United States immediately following publication in 1997. This essay examines two issues: what accounts for the mass popularity of Memoirs in the United States, and is either the text or the interest (in Japan/geisha) it spurs orientalist? Commonly enjoyed by fans as a "trip to an exotic land" that is also "authentic" in its (re)presentation of Japan, the book is widely read as a fantasy, the essay argues, that engages readers in a world that is enticingly other.