This book was so painful to get through in the beginning. I wanted to give up on it so many times. I took two weeks to get through the first part. The book just didn't grab me. I continued to read after developing an intense hatred for Hatsamomo, I was hoping to discover something horrible would happen to her. Sayuri lived an unbelievably hard life, and I have learned a lot about being a Geisha and the Japanese culture that I didn't know before.