This book gets a lot of press because Dalby is the only non-Japanese ever to have trained as a geisha. Despite the fact that the UK edition that I read is classified as "autobiography," the book --though informed by Dalby's experiences studying the geisha-- is not a memoir of her time spent as a geisha. Dalby is an anthropologist first and foremost and the book reflects that.
I enjoyed the book, but not near as much as I thought I would. I do have to say that to some extent the book feels like an academic text repackaged for the general public.
