Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Lady Tan's Circle of Women

I love the idea behind this book of fleshing out what Tan Yuxian's life might have been like. This was rich with historical details. I really appreciated how See struck a balance between making the female characters in a deeply patriarchal world sympathetic while not being afraid to show the ways they perpetuated many of their culture's harmful practices against women. While this did make the protagonist less likeable the older she got, I still found it a compelling story. We as modern readers (rightly) find footbinding disgusting, but it was reality for centuries of women in China, and See did a good job exploring the realities of how women had to cope with that system.

At the core of this book is the way communities of women in Ming China could band together to support each other, and that made for a very good read. I'd also note that the relationship between Meiling and Yanxian came across as pretty sapphic, with Yanxian frequently struck by Meiling's beauty. I thought it was realistic that they didn't pursue a relationship, but I felt like the romantic aspect between them was an important part of the book.

Content Warnings

puali's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

“It takes a lifetime to make a friend, but you can lose one in an hour,” she recites. “Life without a friend is life without sun. Life without a friend is death.”

While this novel wasn’t quite what I expected, I enjoyed it all the same. I wish that the story started at another point in Tan Yunxian’s life, or perhaps that it had been told in a nonlinear way. This is because it felt like we barely got to see her “circle of women,” which is what I wanted to read about the most.

Apart from that, I appreciated the level of detail when came to Chinese medicine and traditions. I’m always keen on learning about cultures that my education system failed to teach me about, so when I come across novels like this, I absorb as much information as possible, and then keep on researching on my own. Fair warning though: this story goes into great detail about foot binding. I’ll admit, I was a bit uncomfortable reading through said passages…

All in all, worth the read!

Content Warnings

worththecandle's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional medium-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? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

jackiejae's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

Well-written but the subject matter was not for me.

Content Warnings

lizziaha's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.75

really compelling story, I just wish we’d gotten a little deeper into the emotions of the characters.

Content Warnings

defiantturtle's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

adelita18's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was very excited to read this book based on the reviews and book club recommendations I'd seen but felt let down by the hype. "Lady Tan's Circle of Women" only felt periodically engaging to me as it was punctuated by what felt like historical discourses. These moments of putting the plot into historical context did not feel natural to the plot most of the time and broke up the flow of the narrative. The other issues I had with the story below are very particular to the plot and I don't want to ruin the book for an interested reader:

The story goes into great detail about foot binding practices - including explaining the sounds the breaking bones make in a young child's foot. It was stomach churning.
Additionally, it seemed like Lisa See wanted to write in a murder mystery part way through the novel and plopped in the murder of Spinster Aunt about a 1/3 of the way through the story. It's rapidly dropped and then resumed 14 years in the future, around 70-80% of the way through the story.
The attempted poisoning of Yunxian, the successful poisoning of Meiling, the graphic description of Meiling's traumatic birth of her stillborn daughter, and the thorough discourse of Meiling's post-partum depression were exceedingly hard to read.
As a reader who has suffered pregnancy loss, this was triggering.
I disliked the hift in Yunxian's desire to have a concubine free marriage, then bought her husband 3 concubines when she felt like there was a breakdown in their marriage. Yunxian's rationale at this point: " he's earned the right to have the company of a woman who's only purpose is to entertain and provide treats in the bedchamber." It did not feel progressive and it felt very out of character for Yunxian based on her very clear thoughts and views on concubines throughout the first half of the book. Yunxian has many interactions with concubines throughout her life, and ends up becoming exceedingly close with her father's concubine, Miss Zhao, and Lisa See easily could have shown a more subtle shift in her views of concubines in marriage instead of having Yunxian throw in the towel and step away from the marital bed.
During the last 1/3 of the book, there is an outbreak of smallpox that felt very much like the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic lock down and hospital crisis. Grandmother Ru comes to help Yunxian treat those affected in their home and tells Yunxian they must make decisions on who is too sick to save and who is worth saving.
This could be triggering for people who worked in healthcare and/or lost people during the Covid pandemic.
The discussion between Yunxian and her mother-in-law around 90% of the way through the book about the re-inquest into Spinster Aunt's death was frustrating. The buying of silence by the mother-in-law and Yunxian's father to protect the family honor was hard to read.
Lisa See uses some of her characters to voice opinions about variolation and reproductive rights that felt out of place for the time period. I'd like to look more at the writings of the time period to see if this is reflective of the time or if Lisa See was trying to address hot topics in society today through her historical fiction.

That said, there were elements I did enjoy about the book. Grandmother Ru is a tour de force in the book and I liked her the most along with Miss Zhao and Meiling. I particularly liked how Grandmother Ru reminds Yunxian of her strength and to keep pushing toward the end of the book. The speech she gives is very moving and powerful. Overall, I thought the book was just okay.

Content Warnings

More...