Review by snipinfool - Lady Tan's Circle of Women

snipinfool 's review for:

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

4.25

challenging hopeful informative medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The year was 1469, and eight year old Tan Yunxian was sent to live with her grandparents when her father was unable to care for her when her mother died. Her grandmother was one of a tiny group of women allowed to practice medicine. Yunxian showed an aptitude for learning at her grandmother's side. Almost all doctors were male, and it was forbidden for them to touch a woman in their care. Questions relative to attempting to diagnose an ailment were relayed by the doctor (usually behind a barrier such as a screen) to the patient via another person in the household. Grandmother Ru focused on women's illnesses and was able to personally treat them. Yunxian learned much while under her grandmother's guardianship. They were not able to directly attend to women in childbirth due to the restriction that doctors could not touch blood. Midwife Shi, who came to the family's compound to deliver babies, had a daughter Yunxian's age who was a midwife-in-training. Yunxian and Meiling became close friends and saw each other often. Yunxian tried to learn as much as she could about childbirth by watching Meiling and her mother.

When Yunxian was fifteen, she left her grandparent's home and traveled to the home of the man her family arranged for her to marry. She planned on continuing studying and practicing medicine on the women in her new home. Yunxian quickly learned that her new mother-in-law forbid those plans and expected her to spend her time working on needlework, creating poetry, and other wifely type entertainments. Yunxian tried to honor her mother-in-law's wishes as best she could, but she still helped those in need when she could.

This was a very interesting story based on a real life female Chinese doctor in the fifteenth century. Women were expected to play a secondary role their entire life, but Yunxian found a way to make a difference within those restrictions. She had clear intentions of doing what she could to make women's lives easier and better. There were several characters from the book I loved such as Grandmother Ru and Meiling, but so many made me angry because of they followed the expectations of the patriarchal society. I understand why they did, but it still angered me. I have read many of Lisa See's books and have enjoyed each one. She does a great job of setting the time and place into words. It was easy to create an idea of Yunxian's world while I read.

Content Warnings