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Question: What's a good memoir!?
I liked "A Million Little Pieces" even though some of it wasn't true!. What are some other memoirs that deal with personal struggle!? It would be even better if the character was young, but it doesn't have to be!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
"First They Killed My Father" by Loung Ung is an excellent memoir!. The author is five years old as she describes living in fear and loneliness under the Khmer Rouge!. Her family is forced to flee Phnom Penh!. They live in several labor camps, enduring starvation, forced labor, and climate change!. Eventually, the family disperses and Ung is on her own training to be a child soldier!.

It is a true story and I highly recommend this novel!. Once you read it, you will not put it down!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Memoirs of a Geisha! Its by Arthur Golden

It's pure fiction, but it's told like a true story, and very historically correct!.

First of all, a Geisha was a special Japanese entertainer!. They were women who wore traditional kimono's and that white face paint/makeup!. They had to be perfect at pretty much everything!. How to serve tea properly, sing, dance, play an instrument, have good conversational skills, the best kimonos, etc etc etc!. They would accompany business men to parties and events!. Their job was to look pretty basically!. Some people think they were prostitutes because the compromising situations Geisha girls were often put in, but this is incorrect!. If a Geisha ever behaved inappropriately, it was usually by force to generate more tips and gifts toward the Geisha house they lived under!.

It's a long book but it's all about personal struggle!. It's about a young country girl of Japan who's mother dies and her father sells her and her sister to a Geisha house (as a servant mainly)!. They decide the sister is too old, so they give her to a prostitution house, but the main character gets to work for a geisha house!. She has unusually blue eyes for a Japanese, so it brings her a lot of attention, and they decide to put her in Geisha school!. Eventually she becomes one of the greatest Geisha of the time!. She goes through lots of struggles and hardships, including a scene where her virginity is sold to the highest bidder (yikes!) to benefit the Geisha house!. There's also her own personal love story between her and a business man she admires!.

I promise you won't be disappointed! You'll probably shed a few tears at some parts, and you'll be duly excited when great things happen for her!. It's a really great book!.

(There was also a recent movie put out of the same title based on the book!. They did a very, very good job at the movie, but the book is still better!. The movie was quite long and slow, but the reading goes faster!.)Www@QuestionHome@Com

Memoirs of a Gisha was really good- touching-
uummm there was one called "The Linett Bird" i dont think its a memoir but its the story of a young girl who grew up in the slums of early 1800 England- with the discovery of India or something, one of the best books written :) i cant remeber the authors name sorry!!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Comment: Memoirs of a Geisha is a good book but it's HISTORICALLY INCORRECT!. Girls weren't forced to become geisha during the WWII era--that happened during the Tokugawa regime in the 1600-1800's!.

Anyway, I highly recommend "1 Litre of Tears!." It's the diary of a girl named Aya Kitou, who, at the age of 15, was diagnosed with a rare disease called Spinocerebellar Degeneration--a disease which eventually affects her nervous system!. Through the next few years she slowly loses her ability to walk, speak, and lastly hold a pen before she succumbs into a coma and dies!. The cruelest part is the fact that while a part of her brain was deteriorating, she still retained her state of mind--so her body slowly turns into a prison!.

Unfortunately, I've only seen one copy translated into english a long time ago, but lately I haven't been able to find one for myself!. You can read a fan-translated version of her diary here:

http://www!.xanga!.com/OneLitreWww@QuestionHome@Com

Well, if you like oriental culture, obviously "Memoirs of A Geisha" is very good and is the only book that comes to mind when I think of memoir (or maybe its the title!.) If you have seen the movie, it's really good, but there is nothing like that book!. Happy reading!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Paula by Isabel Allende
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Project Girl by Janet MacDonald
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Enrique's Journey by Sonia NazarioWww@QuestionHome@Com

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt is really good!. It's about an Irish family who lives in complete poverty!. It is written from the author's memory from the time he was about 4 years old until maybe 17 or so!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

This boy's life, by Tobias Wolff, which I think has a movie based on as well, but I havent seen it!.

Night, by Elie Wiesel, about the Holocaust!.Www@QuestionHome@Com