One Hundred and One Ways [Paperback]

Mako Yoshikawa (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2000

"I have spent most of my life in New Jersey, but the blood of a geisha courses through me yet."

If Kiki Takehashi's life is dramatically different from that of her reserved Japanese-American mother, it is light-years away from that of her grandmother, whom she knows only through old family stories. Kiki has recently become engaged to Eric, a handsome, successful New York City lawyer. But at the same time she is haunted--quite literally--by the memory of her friend Phillip, killed the previous year in a mountaineering accident.

Kiki has never met her grandmother Yukiko, for whom she is named. Still, thoroughly American though she is, she feels a secret kinship with her. Kiki is swept up by the story of this strong, proud, passionate woman who, against all odds, in a time and place far different from her own, was sold by her impoverished family, became a famous geisha, and found the love that has so far eluded the rest of the Takehashi women.

Lyrical, haunting, and stunningly evocative, One Hundred and One Ways introduces a powerful and exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"What a geisha is to Japan, a Japanese woman is to America." Kiki Takehashi, the narrator of Mako Yoshikawa's debut novel, One Hundred and One Ways, is all too familiar with what she calls the "Asian-woman fetish" of many American men--the assumption that Japanese women "possessed a set of keys that would unlock their bodies with a groan, one hundred and one times, one hundred and one ways". Despite her suspicions, however, Kiki keeps getting involved with Caucasian men--first Philip, who died the previous year, and now Eric, a Jewish lawyer who has asked her to marry him. Though Kiki accepts, she is still haunted--literally--by the ghost of her departed first love and by her own unresolved feelings about her parents' failed marriage.

As she works through these issues, Kiki is increasingly drawn to the story of her maternal grandmother, Yukiko, with whom she feels a strong bond though they have never met. As a young girl, Yukiko was sold by her family and trained to become a geisha. Her story becomes intertwined with that of her granddaughter's--giving both strength and unexpected guidance to Kiki when she must make a heart-wrenching decision. Indeed, the sections detailing Yukiko's life are among the strongest in Yoshikawa's controlled, occasionally stilted first novel. --Margaret Prior --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

At once a coming-of-age narrative and a ghost story, Yoshikawa's first novel is also a tale of Japanese-American identity and an extraordinarily polished and graceful look at three generations of women and their lost loves. "Whether I like it or not, the lives of my mother and my grandmother are the stars by which I chart my course," observes 26-year-old Kiki Takehashi, a graduate student in English at a university in New York. Kiki's lawyer boyfriend, Eric, has asked her to marry him. But Kiki is quite literally haunted by the love of her life, Philip, who died in a Nepalese avalanche. Philip's ghost now lingers in her apartment, never speaking, real yet ethereal, undermining her romance with Eric. Kiki's grandmother Yukiko, meanwhile, is coming to America. Sold at age 14 to keep her family in rice and pickled plums, Yukiko became a geisha: she spurned her daughter Akiko (Kiki's mother) when Akiko married, and the two have not met in 29 years. Now Yukiko is widowed, Akiko long divorced and Yukiko plans to make up with Akiko and meet her granddaughter, who yearns to ask Yukiko all about love and desire. Yoshikawa's elegant prose adds resonance to this exploration of mothers and daughters, husbands and lovers, sex and commitment, Japan and America. More ethnic than ethnographic, the novel lacks the exotic detail readers cherished in Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. Instead, Yoshikawa offers a pensive, erotic, deeply moving tale of three women who must comprehend their pasts before they can move on into their converging futures. (May) FYI: Yoshikawa descends from a long line of samurai; her great-grandmother was a geisha.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (May 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553379690
• ISBN-13: 978-0553379693
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,738,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A PROVOCATIVE NEW VOICE, December 23, 2000

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Hundred and One Ways (Paperback)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 101 Ways is a beautiful and sensual story, June 5, 2000

By 

michelle (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Hundred and One Ways (Paperback)

I am an Asian-American woman who just recently returned from a first-time trip to Korea. I finished this book upon my return and I am glad I waited. Because of my first-hand experience in an Asian country, I have a greater appreciation for the imagery and the culture described in 101 Ways. Yoshikawa does an excellent job at portraying the differences in not only the cultures (American vs. Japanese), but also the differences between each generation within the character's family . She writes beautifully and keeps the reader attentive throughout the entire story. I loved the portrayal of the characters, especially the protagonist. I think that many Asian-American women will be able to relate to her.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is lyrically written and very fascinating!, October 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: One Hundred and One Ways (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating and moving debut novel by Mako Yoshikawa. The story, narrated by Kiki, a Japanese-American young woman, spans 3 generations of women (Kiki, her mother and her grandmother)who have each lost great loves in their lives and how each comes to grips with their past to face their future. Kiki weaves a spellbinding web of a story about her lost love, Philip. He has died in a mountaineering trip and Kiki can't forget him. In fact, she sees him every waking day in her apartment, even though she has a new lover, successful lawyer, Eric.

The most engrossing, lyrically written part of the book is when Kiki tells her grandmother's story of lost love. Kiki compares her life with that of her grandmother, a former geisha, whom she eagerly awaits to visit her in America. The 3 stories are connected effortlessly and smoothly by Yoshikawa. This book is worth reading!