Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See (audiobook)

 genre: historical fiction

From the earliest time she can remember, Tan Yunxian has known that her behavior is dictated by a very strict code of rules. Her feet will be bound so that they can be beautiful for her future husband. She will behave circumspect in every circumstance. She will bear sons to carry on the family name of her husband. These things are unquestioned. This is what it is to be a woman of wealth. However, Tan is very lucky because her grandmother is a doctor, a maker of medicines for women and women’s ailments. From her grandmother, Tan learns how to pay attention to all the different aspects of a woman in order to help her heal and bring her yin and yang back into a healthy equilibrium. This healing knowledge and her ability to create medicinal prescriptions is going to transform Tan’s life as she grows up, marries out, and makes her way in 15th century China.

I have read several of Lisa See'ss books at this point and once again, she does not disappoint. I felt myself completely transported and frustrated by the second-class lot for women in a place and time that's very different from my own. Learning about Eastern medicine was wild, I am so uneducated in this area that I loved learning about other ways of looking at our bodies than what I am used to. This is definitely a chronological book where we go forward in time through Lady Tan‘s life, but it is also a look at the importance of family and, even more so, the relationships between women and the truth that a woman’s body is just different than a man’s and deserves a different kind of care and compassion. I really loved being seeped in a woman’s world like this. Yes, there is some pettiness, but there is also a whole realm of issues and concerns that are just as meaningful and valid as those that happen outside the walls of the women’s quarters. Yes, foot binding is barbaric. You do end up thinking a lot about this process throughout the book and if you’re like me, you’ll end up in a rabbit hole of photos and videos that make you feel so sad about the way that women were put into that tiny box, where they could hardly move without pain. But they were beautiful to men! That part does truly rankle but I appreciate that it is authentic to the period.

I'm sad I wasn't able to attend our book club about this one, I think it would've been an interesting discussion.  I'm so glad I made time for it anyway.

I was a little overwhelmed by all the names of people at the beginning - and at the end, if I’m honest, there were still a few minor characters that I struggled to place, but I’m glad that I listened to the audio for the pronunciation. It was a good production.