Book Club at the Library – “Lady Tan’s Circle of Women”

In April, our Thursday evening book club will discuss the New York Times Bestseller, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, by Lisa See. Copies of the book are available at the Gunn Memorial Library circulation desk.

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses from a young age, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship, a mutual purpose and vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles.
But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

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