

"I have spent most of my life in New Jersey, but the blood of a geisha courses through me yet." If Kiki Takehashi's life is dramatically different from that of her reserved Japanese-American mother, it is light-years away from that of her grandmother, whom she knows only through old family stories. Kiki has recently become engaged to Eric, a handsome, successful New York City lawyer. But at the same time she is haunted--quite literally--by the memory of her friend Phillip, killed the previous year in a mountaineering accident. Kiki has never met her grandmother Yukiko, for whom she is named. Still, thoroughly American though she is, she feels a secret kinship with her. Kiki is swept up by the story of this strong, proud, passionate woman who, against all odds, in a time and place far different from her own, was sold by her impoverished family, became a famous geisha, and found the love that has so far eluded the rest of the Takehashi women. Lyrical, haunting, and stunningly evocative, One Hundred and One Ways introduces a powerful and exciting new voice in contemporary fiction. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Publisher:
[S.I.] : Random House Publishing Group, 2009.
ISBN:
9780307569882
Branch Call Number:
eBOOK OVERDRI
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Add a CommentIf Memoirs of a Geisha or The Joy Luck Club were among your favourite reads, add Yoshikawa’s novel to your list. The longing of a Japanese American girl to meet with and talk to her grandmother, a former geisha, is essential to understanding to her own life. Her questions to her ‘Obaasama’ shape the background of the story, while her past and present loves weave themselves through her search. The unfolding of her relationship to her mother presents a third strand to her voyage of discovery.