90-Day Geisha is both a memoir of Haywood's three-month venture and a fish-out-of-water story. Chelsea finds herself in post-bubble 21st century Tokyo, where wealthy businessmen routinely pay just for the experience of buying her a few drinks, talking with her, and maybe singing some karaoke and sometimes take her out on all paid trips to the country side. The book tends to focus on Haywood along with some of her more interesting clients who she saw repeatedly over the 3-month experience. For a post-economic bubble city, there seemed to be a bunch of people with tons of money to burn in this memoir.
What attracted me to this book as it sat on the shelve was both the somewhat-misleading title (Chelsea was a hostess, not, as I understand, a formal geisha) and the striking photo of a blond women with her eyes pair of large mirrored, glasses. Reflected in her glasses are glittering-skyscrapers of Tokyo, making it impossible to get a full impression of her expression. Is she bored by the neon city? Amazed? Taken aback? We don't really know and after reading the memoir, it felt that the author herself felt all those emotions during her stay.
I'd love to read another book by her, since her style is generally easy and enjoyable. The only real problems I had was that I would have liked a postscript as to what had happened after her 90 days. I really enjoyed 90-Day Geisha. Plus, it would have been better had there been a bit more of a narrative, though sometimes life doesn't have a neat narrative like good fiction should. I seem to be on a bit of a Japanese kick with my readings, but I really recommend this interesting, memoir.
The author's website can also be found here.
Rating 3.5 to 4 of 5.
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