I actually felt like Sayuri was sitting across from me telling me her story of her childhood and what she experienced and felt as she learned to become a geisha in Japan. Her words flowed and I especially loved the parables, her descriptions when something happened and how she explained so poetically what it was like. I wish that her love for the Chairman could have been drawn out a little more at the end as I wanted to enjoy that as much as I enjoyed the rest of the book.