Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

 

Publisher: Scribner

On Sale Date: June 6 2023

Pages: 368

I reviewed a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com

Tan Yunxian is born into an elite family in 15th century China during the Ming dynasty, the time where women's feet where bound. Tan Yunxian is raised by her grandparents, she rarely sees her father in the big family compound.

Her grandmother is one of the rare female doctors of that time, who treats patients with traditional Chinese medicines, remdies and cures. Her grandmother is an expert in this field, with experience for many years, and she teaches Yunxian the most important pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations; looking, listening, touching, and asking. which is something only female doctors understand when treating a female patient. Yunxian learns where women's illnesses, and illnesses related to childbearing, and she becomes close friends with a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. But all the years of training to become a female doctor, abrubtly seem to stop when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, and her mother-in-law forbids her from doing her curing practices to the women in the household and to ever see her best friend Meiling again. She is forced to do what an obedient wife is supposed to do; embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights. w

Yunxian wants to break free from everything she is forced to do, she just wants to treat and cure women and girls. But women didn't have that much power to do what they wanted, but Yunxian Tan found a way and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later.

The book is beautifully written, full of historical detail that the books of Lisa See are well known of, and this book is no exception. Where the previous books of Lisa See sometimes took place in both China and sometimes the USA too, this book is completely set in 15th century China. The book is so detailed I could just imagine this being turned into a movie someday as the author already paints such a lifely image of that time period and the people in it.  The storyline is very good, altough I found it a bit that some parts where repetitive, and sometimes I missed a certain bit of action that could made it even more a page turner. With this I mean that some parts where only about Yunxian trying to cure people which is tremendous, but when it only repeats in many parts of the story, it can come over of more or less reading the same over and over again. But further on this is a well reseached and beautiful book with lots happening and historical Chinese characters and places that truly come alive on the pages!