this was a heartbreaking and intense look life as a bastard in midcentury japan

 Masudo’s autobiography is not only the anti-“Memoirs of a Geisha,” it feels like it was written in response to “Snow Country,” the Japanese novel that helped Yasunari Kawabata secure a Nobel Prize in Literature. There  is nothing romantic or glamourous about the life of a hot springs-resort geisha in pre-WWII Japan. Death from untreated STDs, suicide and sexual assault were common. And once they paid off their contracts, the very townspeople that profited from their sex work would treat them like pariahs and deny them employment. Masuda does not sugar coat her lifetime of pain and struggle, but this is also a story of resilience and grit. The translator did an amazing job of capturing her humor and spirited personality. I highly recommend this short but powerful book.