The Red Tent by Anita Diamant Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Red Tent
Book Review: A Fascinating Look into Another Time and Place
Summary: 4 Stars
Anita Diamant's The Red Tent is based on a name just briefly mentioned in Genesis. Her name is Dinah, and her story is told in first-person narrative. Much of the beginning is her mothers' tales, and its purpose is to set the scene and tone of the novel. About halfway through an event occurs that sets this novel rolling. It is an absolutely fascinating departure from other novels out there. Diamant's choice to tell the female viewpoint from a minor character is brilliant. I am no biblical scholar, either. You don't even have to be familiar with any of the names in order to enjoy this historical yarn. I Can't wait to see what else Diamant might have in the works.Book Review: A Fascinating Tale Spun from A Familiar Source....
Summary: 5 Stars
Most of what I read is nonfiction -- it isn't often I find a novel that holds my interest, let alone one that I don't want to put down. But this story, pulled from the Old Testament's Genesis (the one with the seemingly endless list of begats) was fascinating. Another reviewer here bemoaned the neglect of any mention of "God" -- in truth, God is woven into the fabric of this story (often spoken of as EL) without a bit of proselytizing. This story personalizes half the book of Genesis (25 - 50), making it vibrant, rich and fascinating to believers and non-believers alike. Although religion is a central part of the lives of the men and women we meet, the entire story takes place in a time when most are just beginning to consider giving up their beliefs in a multitude of gods and goddesses for the one God of Jacob's father.
Written in the first person, it gives voice to the lives of women, so neglected in the Old Testament. The story leads us through Dinah's life from before it begins to after it ends. She tells us the stories her mother and aunts (the most well-known being Rachel and Leah) told each other and her as she grew up.
As the only daughter in a family of 12 sons, Dinah has privileges most girls don't have. She is allowed into the Red Tent, the only place men do not go, and where the women go during their menses or when birthing. She also shares the daily life and rituals of her tribe, with special attention to the lives of the women. Childhood, adolescence, menstruation, weddings, worship of gods and goddesses, married life, childbirth, mothering, cooking, homelife, friendship, and death are all part of Dinah's life, along with passion and drama. Dinah becomes a skilled midwife, and is highly valued wherever she goes....
Anita Diamant is a wonderful writer, historian and storyteller. Her Dinah invites the reader into the story in such a friendly, familiar way that you will find yourself eager to hear more of her tales, and reluctant to let them end. This is one of those rare books that you may find yourself reading again and again.
Book Review: A Fiction Book
Summary: 4 Stars
Last time I looked, this was a fiction book...not a retelling of the bible. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, thought it was extremely well written and engaging. I then wanted to review the book on Amazon but decided to read some other reviews first.
It seems that most of the negative reviews say that the reason they don't like the book is because it doesn't match what the bible says about the characters, or that it is anti-men, too feminist, or that it has too many child birth scenes, etc, etc. Get a life people. I understand that your religion is important to you. Therefore if someone wrote a book about figures in the bible that went against their portrayal in the bible and labeled the book NON-fiction, I guess you would have a reason to be offended. But this is a FICTION novel.
For the life of me I will never understand why people can be SO offended by something that supposedly goes against their religion. If you are truly confident in your religious choices, then anything that is said about it, no matter how blasphemous, shouldn't be able to touch you, right? Then why get so offended and scared that people might question it? If you don't feel its true, just ignore it and go on and read the bible over and over again and don't ever have a thought beyond that. Leave the creative thought to the rest of us who actually have an imagination. The people who believe that God sees whats actually in our hearts, not the God who wants to police our literature.
Book Review: A GREAT Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I kept seeing this book and wanting to buy it - I kept putting it back on the shelf. THen I read that Julia Roberts read it and loved it in O, Magazine - but that didn't convince me either. Then, My best friend sent me a copy for my birthday and I LOVED IT! Every woman should read this book and remember to honor our her-story. A brilliant book. Brilliant.Book Review: A Gentle Hymn to Jewish Feminism
Summary: 4 Stars
This novel is a taught and poetic piece of historical fiction that fleshes a brief but gory incident in Genesis: the murder of the lover of Jacob's daughter and all the males in his family, when their guard is down because they have just circumcised themselves to please Dinah's father and brothers. The Red Tent clearly shows how Judaism could have emerged from the pagan and animistic soup of the Fertile Crescent 4000 years ago. Diamant walks in giant footprints; Thomas Mann spent the 1930s writing a 4 volume saga based on the story of Jacob and his many sons. The Red Tent is a powerful meditation on Jewish feminism, on the misty patriarchal origins or Judaism, and on Jewish women's growing willingness to speak to their unease about ritual circumcision (circumcision is the only link between the world imagined by Diamant and the world of her readers). I would argue that this book gives aid and comfort to Jews who are embarrassed by ritual circumcision, and to Gentiles who want to abandon routine infant circumcision.