The result is a novel with the broad social canvas (and love of coincidence) of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen's intense attention to the nuances of erotic maneuvering. Readers experience the entire life of a geisha, from her origins as an orphaned fishing-village girl in 1929 to her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price as a teenager to her reminiscent old age as the distinguished mistress of the powerful patron of her dreams. We discover that a geisha is more analogous to a Western "trophy wife" than to a prostitute--and, as in Austen, flat-out prostitution and early death is a woman's alternative to the repressive, arcane system of courtship. In simple, elegant prose, Golden puts us right in the tearoom with the geisha; we are there as she gracefully fights for her life in a social situation where careers are made or destroyed by a witticism, a too-revealing (or not revealing enough) glimpse of flesh under the kimono, or a vicious rumor spread by a rival "as cruel as a spider."

Golden's web is finely woven, but his book has a serious flaw: the geisha's true romance rings hollow--the love of her life is a symbol, not a character. Her villainous geisha nemesis is sharply drawn, but she would be more so if we got a deeper peek into the cause of her motiveless malignity--the plight all geisha share. Still, Golden has won the triple crown of fiction: he has created a plausible female protagonist in a vivid, now-vanished world, and he gloriously captures Japanese culture by expressing his thoughts in authentic Eastern metaphors. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
"I wasn't born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha.I'm a fisherman's daughter from a little town called Yoroido on the Sea of Japan." How nine-year-old Chiyo, sold with her sister into slavery by their father after their mother's death, becomes Sayuri, the beautiful geisha accomplished in the art of entertaining men, is the focus of this fascinating first novel. Narrating her life story from her elegant suite in the Waldorf Astoria, Sayuri tells of her traumatic arrival at the Nitta okiya (a geisha house), where she endures harsh treatment from Granny and Mother, the greedy owners, and from Hatsumomo, the sadistically cruel head geisha. But Sayuri's chance meeting with the Chairman, who shows her kindness, makes her determined to become a geisha. Under the tutelage of the renowned Mameha, she becomes a leading geisha of the 1930s and 1940s. After the book's compelling first half, the second half is a bit flat and overlong. Still, Golden, with degrees in Japanese art and history, has brilliantly revealed the culture and traditions of an exotic world, closed to most Westerners. Highly recommended.
-?Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

John D. Daniels, the Samuel N. Friedland Chair of Executive management at the University of Miami, received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. His dissertation won first place in the award com­petition of the Academy of International Business. Since then he has been an active researcher. His articles have appeared in such leading journals as Academy of management Journal, California management Review, Columbia journal of World Business, journal of business Research, journal of International business Studies, Strategic management Journal, and Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv. On its thirtieth anniversary, management International Review referred to him as "one of the most prolific American IB scholars." He has also served as president of the Academy of International business and dean of its Fellows. He also served as chairperson of the international division of the Academy of Management. He has worked and lived a year or longer in seven different countries, worked shorter stints in about thirty other countries on six conti­nents, and has traveled in many more. His foreign work has been a combination of private sector, govern­mental, teaching, and research assignments. He was formerly director of the Center for International business Education and research (C1BER) at Indiana University and holder of the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair at the University of Richmond.

Lee H. Radebaugh, is the KPMG Professor and Associate Director of the MBA Program at Brigham Young University. He received his MBA and doctorate from Indiana University. He taught at the Pennsylvania State University from 1972 to 1980. He also has been a visiting professor at Escuela de Administracion de Negocios para Graduados (ESAN), a graduate business school in Lima, Peru. In 1985, Professor Radebaugh was the James Cusator Wards visiting professor at Glasgow University, Scotland. His other books include International Accounting and Multinational Enterprises (John Wiley and Sons, 4th Edition) with S.J. Gray; Introduction to Business: International Dimensions (South-Western Publishing Company) with John D. Daniels; and seven books on Canada-U.S. trade and investment relations, with Earl Fry as co-editor. He has also published several other monographs and articles on international business and international account­ing in journals such as the journal of Accounting Research, the journal of International Financial management and Accounting, the journal of International business Studies, and the International journal of Accounting. He is currently serving as Editor of the Journal of International Accounting Research. His primary teaching interests are international business and international accounting. He is an active member of the American Accounting Association, the European Accounting Association, and the Academy of International Business, having served on several committees as the president of the International Section of the AAA and as the secretary-treasurer of the AIB. He is a member of the Fellows of the Academy of International Business. He is also active with the local business community as past president of the World Trade Association of Utah and member of the District Export Council. In 1998, he was named International Person of the Year in the State of Utah and Outstanding International Educator of the International Section of the American Accounting Association.

Daniel P. Sullivan, an Associate Professor of management at the Alfred Lerner College of business of the University of Delaware, received his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. He researches a range of topics, including Globalization and Business, International Management, Global Strategy, Competitive Analysis, and Corporate Governance. His work on these topics has been published in leading scholarly journals, including the journal of International business Studies, management International Review, Law and Society Review, and Academy of Management Journal. In addition, he has served on the editorial boards of Journal of International business Studies and Management International Review. He has been honored for both his research and teaching, receiv­ing grants and winning awards for both activities while at the University of Delaware and, his for­mer affiliation, the A.B. Freeman School of business of Tulane University. He has been awarded numerous teaching honors at the undergraduate, MBA, and EMBA levels–most notably, he was voted the Outstanding Teacher by the students of seven consecutive Executive MBA classes at the University of Delaware and Tulane University. He has taught, designed, and administered a range of graduate, undergraduate, and non-degree courses on topics spanning Globalization and Business, International business Operations, International Management, Strategic Perspectives, Executive Leadership, and Corporate Strategy. In the United States, he has delivered lectures and courses at several uni­versity sites and company facilities. In addition, he has led courses in several foreign countries, including China, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Finally, he has worked with many managers and consulted with several multinational enterprises on issues of international business.

Written by renowned international relations expert Joseph S. Nye, this lively book gives readers the background in history and political concepts they need to understand the issues facing our world today: the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran, and much more. Origins of the Great Twentieth-Century Conflicts; Balance of Power and World War I; The Failure of Collective Security and World War II; The Cold War; Intervention, Institutions, and Regional Conflicts; Interdependence and Globalization; The Information Age; A New World Order? Anyone interested in understanding international relations today.