Book Review ~Beyond the Blossoming Fields by Jun'ichi Watanabe

Hardcover, 318 pages.

As a young girl from a wealthy family, Ginko Ogino seems set for a conventional life in the male-dominated society of 19th-century Japan. But when she contracts gonorrhea from her husband, she suffers the disgrace of divorce. Forced to bear the humiliation of being treated by male doctors, she resolves to become a doctor herself in order to treat fellow female sufferers and spare them some of the shame she had to endure. 

Her struggle is not an easy one—her family disowns her, and she has to convince the authorities to take seriously the very idea of a female doctor and allow her to study alongside male medical students and take the licensing exam. 

Based on the real-life story of Ginko Ogino—Japan’s first female doctor—Jun'ichi Watanabe does full justice to the complexity of her character and her world in a fascinating and inspirational work of fiction.

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I give this book two stars because it's a biography about the first woman who became a doctor in Japan. Ginko Ogino. Fictional, yet a biography.

It's hard to imagine a world when opportunities were prohibited for women. That every action be pointed at us like something good or bad. That you have to marry at 15 years old. Without love. But that world really existed. I'm so sad just thinking about it. Even in this "modern" world, as women we still fight to have a place, there are lots of people fighting for equal opportunities on Middle East. And I'm so happy to had read some part of this story, because this woman. Wow. Just the fact of fighting against everything to make your dream come true. It makes me think of not give up now that we have lots of more opportunities and laws that can protect us more than ever.

I liked that I could found some things on the internet, like the photo that was taken of her after been authorised as a doctor.


 Yet, I felt it a little boring. Nonsense dialogues or scenes made me think about I have better books to read. Plus that I have this book since October 2011. And I still hadn't finished it. I realised I can't keep reading anymore. I just read like 200 pages. Ginko Ogino was already a doctor when I stopped reading this. :)

A good read if you like this kind of books. But not for me. At least not all the book.

I borrowed this book from the library of my college.*

~Liss~