The author, Arthur Golden, had been sued by his main source who was in fact a former geisha, Mineko Iwasaki, in 2001. She claims in her lawsuit that she was to remain anonymous, but Golden thanked her immensely in the afterword of the book which sold 4 million copies. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2003.
My mistake of taking this book as a real memoir was left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I do wish the account was real, which would be extremely powerful. Now that I know it's fiction, I'm not nearly as moved by Sayuri's perseverance, talent, and happy ending. I remember saying to Lucas at one point about the story, "You can't make this stuff up." Clearly you can, and clearly I need to pay better attention to what I'm reading. I will give Golden credit for his writing; its was wonderfully vivid. As I listened on my daily commute, I could practically see Sayuri dancing in a tea house instead of cars driving on a highway.