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A review by lillygabriella
Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Ok, first for the nitpicking. A lot of research was done on this book, and as far as I know most of it was good. But the author specifically states at the beginning that this is set before Columbus even stumbled across the Caribbean islands, and the author forgot that peanuts are native to the Americas so would not have been around in Ming Dynasty Chinese food. I know it's difficult for many people to imagine cultural cuisine without the addition of American foodstuffs, potatoes and tomatoes having become a staple part of several European cultural traditions for instance. But I double checked on Google just to make sure I was not remembering my history incorrectly. This is a minor issue, and only bothers me because when reading historical fiction and hitting a detail that I know for a fact is false it throws off my suspension of disbelief. It is also the main reason I no longer enjoy reading western/European based historical fiction. I know just too much to not be bothered by the inaccuracies.
All that out of the way, this book was excellently written, with all characters having depth and I enjoyed learning details about life in Ming Dynasty China. I also appreciate the extensive references listed in the back of the book. The foot binding references are detailed and designed purposefully I believe, to make the reader uncomfortable. Some people may find it astonishing that foot binding tradition lasted so long (about 1,000 years) but I would like to remind those people that when a practice becomes tradition it is very difficult to break, and the longer it is held the more difficult the breaking will be.
Anyway, I enjoyed the book very much and highly recommend it to anyone who read the blurb and was intrigued.
All that out of the way, this book was excellently written, with all characters having depth and I enjoyed learning details about life in Ming Dynasty China. I also appreciate the extensive references listed in the back of the book. The foot binding references are detailed and designed purposefully I believe, to make the reader uncomfortable. Some people may find it astonishing that foot binding tradition lasted so long (about 1,000 years) but I would like to remind those people that when a practice becomes tradition it is very difficult to break, and the longer it is held the more difficult the breaking will be.
Anyway, I enjoyed the book very much and highly recommend it to anyone who read the blurb and was intrigued.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Sexism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Suicide, Murder, Infertility, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Cancer, Alcohol, Slavery, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Abortion, and Excrement