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A review by rachels_booknook
Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See
4.0
Thank you @simonschusterca & @netgalley for sending me this review copy. Opinions are mine.
I didn’t expect to get so into this book. I love historical fiction but I generally prefer 20th century. Although I’ve enjoyed some of her previous novels, I was surprised that I stayed up late to finish this.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is based on the true story of a woman doctor, Yunxian, in the Ming dynasty, 500 years ago in China. In 1511, at age 50, she published a book of her medical cases involving women and girls. Lisa See says on the @momsdonthavetimetoreadbooks podcast, “she was a remarkable woman in her time and would probably be still considered remarkable today. Many of her remedies are used in traditional Chinese medicine today.”
The novel follows Yunxian through her childhood and teenage years with her grandparents, learning to become a doctor for women under her grandmother’s tutelage, and into her marriage into a prominent family. We read about her struggles to produce a son, deal with her strict in-laws, and fight to be able to practice medicine to heal the women and girls around her. We also follow her close friendship with the local midwife, Meiling, and learn about the differences in their practices, as well as status in society.
There’s a lot of talk about foot binding for the higher classes of women in China. I’ve read about it before but could never really picture it. Through this book, and some googling, I finally understand what it looks like.
I love that this book touches on class, status and gender roles, and how these women rose to prominence through their respective careers, earning respect. I enjoyed reading about the different cases Yunxian attended to. The descriptions of medical issues are in different words, but some were still recognizable today.
I often remark on books that have infertility representation and, while the treatment was obviously different in 15th century China, infertility is definitely a central topic in this novel, demonstrating that women have been struggling with infertility for centuries.
I didn’t expect to get so into this book. I love historical fiction but I generally prefer 20th century. Although I’ve enjoyed some of her previous novels, I was surprised that I stayed up late to finish this.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is based on the true story of a woman doctor, Yunxian, in the Ming dynasty, 500 years ago in China. In 1511, at age 50, she published a book of her medical cases involving women and girls. Lisa See says on the @momsdonthavetimetoreadbooks podcast, “she was a remarkable woman in her time and would probably be still considered remarkable today. Many of her remedies are used in traditional Chinese medicine today.”
The novel follows Yunxian through her childhood and teenage years with her grandparents, learning to become a doctor for women under her grandmother’s tutelage, and into her marriage into a prominent family. We read about her struggles to produce a son, deal with her strict in-laws, and fight to be able to practice medicine to heal the women and girls around her. We also follow her close friendship with the local midwife, Meiling, and learn about the differences in their practices, as well as status in society.
There’s a lot of talk about foot binding for the higher classes of women in China. I’ve read about it before but could never really picture it. Through this book, and some googling, I finally understand what it looks like.
I love that this book touches on class, status and gender roles, and how these women rose to prominence through their respective careers, earning respect. I enjoyed reading about the different cases Yunxian attended to. The descriptions of medical issues are in different words, but some were still recognizable today.
I often remark on books that have infertility representation and, while the treatment was obviously different in 15th century China, infertility is definitely a central topic in this novel, demonstrating that women have been struggling with infertility for centuries.