Instruct: Classify an Amazon review as either positive or negative.
Query: Waste of time

I thought this book was trite, contrived, and poorly written. Even though I am not very acquainted with things Japanese, it smelled false and exploitative to me.I realize that it's difficult to "novelize" a cultural tradition--especially when it's targeted to readers outside of the native culture--but I think the author used every Western convention to make this book appeal, and therefore it suffers from a romance novel-type whitewash that, in the end, just doesn't ring true.Read this if you want some mind candy. It works on that level. As something that might provide insight on Geisha history, it's pretty fishy.