One Hundred and One Ways: A Novel

By Mako Yoshikawa

Book Overview

"I may have spent most of my life in New Jersey, but the blood of a geisha courses through me yet." So writes Mako Yoshikawa in this extraordinary debut novel which is sure to evoke comparisons to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553379690
• ISBN13: 9780553379693
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.8" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

A PROVOCATIVE NEW VOICE

An original coming of age tale and a perceptive reflection of what it means to be a Japanese American are the twin buttresses of One Hundred and One Ways, an impressive debut novel by Mako Yoshikawa. Choosing as her setting a rampantly vigorous New York City, the author has crafted an exceptional story of three women whose lives are irrevocably intertwined. By deft use of telling flashback and revelatory conversation Ms. Yoshikawa seamlessly conjoins the past experiences of our narrator, Kiki, a 26-year-old American university student, her mother, Akiko, who lives alone in a well appointed New Jersey home, and her grandmother, Yukiko, a former geisha still in Japan, a woman Kiki has never met but longs to know. Their mutuality rests in each losing the first man she loved. As Kiki, writes: "In my family, being haunted by a lost love is not even news. I come from a line of women with a tenacious grip on the man in their lives." More literally haunted than her forebears Kiki finds herself living with a ghost - the wraithlike specter of her dead lover Phillip who appears unbidden "crouching in a fetal position under my desk, and he enjoys folding his long body into an improbably tiny package so he can fit into the fireplace...." Now engaged to Eric, an up-and-coming young attorney, Kiki finds herself torn by a desire to be what Eric wishes her to be and the continuing grief she feels after Phillip's sudden death. His phantasmic appearances serve only to exacerbate her confusion and sorrow. Seeking respite from ever growing uncertainty, Kiki eagerly anticipates a Thanksgiving visit from her grandmother, the older woman's first trip to the United States and, hopefully, a time of reconciliation for Akiko and Yukiko who have been estranged for a number of years. "I have been hoarding questions to ask my grandmother Yukiko," Kiki writes. "These questions start out to be about her life, and then turn out to be about my own." The affinity Kiki feels for her grandmother is deeper than a blood tie: "....there is a bond that connects my grandmother to me. It is not our physical resemblance that draws us together, nor does it matter that we share the same name. I know that our similarities run deeper than that, for I have thought long and hard about the key to our secret kinship, and it is this: what a geisha is to Japan, a Japanese woman is to America." That thought is at the heart of this engrossing, magnetic tale. Ms. Yoshikawa, descended from a long line of samurai and the great-granddaughter of a geisha, has created characters for whom we care and will remember. One Hundred and One Ways introduces a thoughtful, provocative new voice to the annals of American fiction.

Higly recommended, a book of great depth

This is a strange story about a japanese-american girl whose grandmother was a geisha in her younger days, but ended up as a wealthy and respected woman. Looking into her family's history, Kiki is in the search of herself - recently she has lost the love of her life in a mountaineer accident. As she tries to entangle her thoughts and reflections, in her mind she talks to her grandmother whom she still hasn't met. - This book is full of mystery and of deep layers of meaning. There is a certain "spaciousness" about the way it is written; the writer seems to capture so much more than can be put down in words. Which to me is very much like life itself; we are so captured with the way the world is being described in movies or in books that we sometimes seem to forget that it is a sort of narrative and not quite like the way the world works - even though they can reflect part of it, if not all. The fact that this book contains so much more than the "story", the fact that a whole way of looking at life is being conveyed without putting it directly, but in a gentle and almost meditative way, is what delighted me about it. It has inspired me and even been a kind of comfort to me, by viewing life so nakedly and by transmitting quite a bit of its complexity. I am looking very much forward to the author's next book!

Lovely, Calgon-take me away, novel

I absolutely loved this novel, probably one of my favorites this year. It reminded me very much of Alice Hoffman's novels (ex. Turtle Moon) and Yoshikawa's style was beautiful. I found myself hoping Phillip would walk through the door, though Eric was a nice enough guy. My question throughout (and was answered toward the end) was when would Kiki begin asking questions of her mother, rather than waiting for her grandmother. What a wonderful story of three generations of Japanese women. I will be eagerly awaiting Yoshikawa's next novel!

A haunting, beautiful book

One of the best books I've read in a while. The prose was so lyrical, it was one of those books where every sentence is a pleasure to read. Definitely not a waste of time or money, I've recommended it to several friends who have also raved about it. Read it!

A beautiful romantic novel

This novel tracks the love stories of a young Manhattan woman, her expatriate Japanese mother, and her geisha grandmother. The shifts between the contemporary narrative and that of the grandmother, especially, are beautifully handled. I found the whole story totally involving, and sexy, to boot. I really couldn't put it down (I read it in 2 sittings, and I usually take a long time to read a book). I'm looking forward to reading whatever this writer comes up with next.