With Oscar season coming into full swing, one movie has already begun to incite controversy in Asia over its portrayal of certain aspects of Japanese culture.

The movie is based on an excellent novel: Arthur Golden’s “Memoirs of a Geisha.” The novel was first published in 1997, but its 2005 reprinting gives audiences a chance to see an elegantly drawn narrative before its display on the big screen.

When many Westerners hear the word “geisha,” they often think of a prostitute. As we learn from the author’s artful storytelling, this description only begins to scratch the surface of what a geisha actually is, and the author does a good job of erasing some misconceptions held by the reader. He does so with the creation of his protagonist, the geisha upon whom this fictional memoir is based – Sayuri.

Sayuri’s birth name was abandoned when she was essentially sold from the fishing village in which she was born. The book chronicles her struggle to become a successful geisha in Gion out of the many thousands of women who hope to become geisha.

One learns through Sayuri’s struggles how much more there is to geisha life than that of a simple escort. Being a geisha in pre-World War II Japan – the time frame for the bulk of the novel – gave a young woman who might have few other options, a sort of education and a place to belong, but these gifts came at a heavy price. A successful geisha required immense amounts of training in dance and social instruction, as well as exorbitant funds for the elaborate dress and make-up. Once a geisha, a woman was expected to be a gracious entertainer for her livelihood, and few options present themselves for the geisha to ever leave the profession.

Anyone would be impressed to learn that this is Golden’s first novel. The author spent an extensive amount of time researching his material before publication. Golden holds degrees in both Japanese art and history, and part of his research for the book included extensive conversations with an actual former geisha. These real conversations probably provide the basis for one of the novel’s most compelling features, the “voice” of Sayuri.

The novel is written as though Sayuri, in her old age, is telling her story to Golden through the use of a translator. Although the novel is fiction, Sayuri’s voice comes through the text to the reader effortlessly.

When reading the book, one can easily hear the voice of an older, cultured Japanese woman relating this tale to another.

The strengths of the book lie in Golden’s excellent descriptive powers and the novel’s pacing. This is one novel where the pace seems to flow like water, keeping the reader constantly involved and interested. The May-December romance between Sayuri and the Chairman, whose proper name is not really used in the novel, also seems a bit flat in comparison to the richness that surrounds it in the narrative.

“Memoirs of a Geisha” is truly an excellent book that deserves a reprinting. Hopefully, the reprinting coinciding with the release of the film will encourage new people to pick up the novel after seeing the movie. Do yourself a favor and read the book before seeing the movie, though. You won’t be disappointed.