The Red Tent

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Summary: Simply Beautiful
Review: Anita Diamant has completely won me over - I am now a huge fan of historical fiction! I chose this book because of the positive word-of-mouth from several friends, and I never regretted my choice. Diamant's style in this book is very simple and direct - you feel as though you are walking, living, seeing and breathing during Old Testament times. I absolutely loved this book, hated to see it end, and whole-heartedly recommend it to everyone!

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Summary: A must read!!
Review: What a fabulous book! I could not put it down and once I finished, I started it over again! The author did a wonderful job describing this facinating time period. I enjoyed her interpretation of this biblical story.

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Summary: Great Book!
Review: This book was really excellant. I was completely sucked in, and read it in 2 days. As much as I would like to write an in-depth review, I can't right now.. but take my word for it.. This book is a must!

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Summary: The Red Tent
Review: One of the most compelling books I have ever read. I could hardly put it down!

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Summary: A book to savor
Review: I thought this book would be boring, but it turned out to be completely interesting and well-written.

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Summary: A must read.
Review: The Red Tent
When I was told to read this book, I almost didn't after reading the back cover. It sounded like it would all be about Genesis, maybe something that I would not understand. But once I started reading it was hard to put down. This book is all woman!!
It's a story of the life of a girl named Dinah. She describes the red tent, and how the women gathered there to bleed together during there moon. There, she learned secrets of being a women, what to expect. Her mothers shared their thoughts with her.
The way she described her life was so real. It put me there, I could almost see myself walking around and being one of the women. The women all had there own tasks to keep everything going right, and to help out their family. The journeys and friends she met along the way of her life were so adventurous. The way she described her love was powerful and made me want to fall in love, just like that.
The way she lived her life, having many mothers, and having to serve the men was different, yet so interesting. It made me happy to live in this lifetime, rather than that lifetime.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Book
Review: I recently read this book for a class of mine and absolutely loved it. Diamant takes a young girl mentioned twice in the Book of Genesis and creates an entire life for her in The Red Tent. Her story is compelling and her characters stay with you after the book is done. Diamant's powerful language sucks you in and spits you out different. no matter what religion you practice, the red tent is definately worth your time.

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Summary: Fictional story of a biblical character
Review: The Red Tent by Anita Diamont

One of the more popular historical fictions of the past few years, THE RED TENT by Anita Diamont is the story of one of the lesser known of Jacob's many children, Dinah. Dinah is only mentioned in a few chapters of the book of Genesis. However, while her brothers took a more prominent role in the Old Testament, in THE RED TENT the character of Dinah is given prominence. Her story is told in epic-like fashion that spans several decades, starting from her childhood with her four mothers and her father Jacob, to her days as a woman living in a foreign land. The story of Dinah is the story of what it was like to be a woman thousands of years ago.

I am not an expert in the history of this time period, nor am I an expert of the Bible. I cannot say whether any of the historical facts are accurate, and whether Anita Diamont followed the bible (she obviously didn't, if she decided to extrapolate and create a fictional life about Dinah, daughter of Jacob). THE RED TENT, however, is more of a celebration of being a woman than it is a story of a biblical character from the bible. While most of the stories in the bible are focused on strong men, it is refreshing to read a story about a biblical character that is female and who overcomes many hardships to create a life for herself. THE RED TENT was not my favorite book read in 2002, but I can say that it was one of the more unique and interesting books read that year.

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Summary: good but not accurate
Review: I thought the book was good in that it was well written. As to being accurate, it was not. I dont read books to pick them apart and be critical but there were some gross inaccuracies and as a Bible reader, they were blaring. Jacob worshipped one God and so did his wives Rachel and Leah, thats why he married them. They were his only wives. If you want an interesting book to read and arnt concerned with Biblical accuracy, this is a good book.

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Summary: Men - read this book!
Review: Although the story of Jacob and his sons is familiar from the Bible, Anita Diamant has presented this story in a very distinctive way. Most notable is the manner in which the God of Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham is presented: as being just one god amongst many, and a fit enough consort for the Queen of Heaven, rather than just a single old man with a white beard. Most of the other gods involved would appear to be either Sumerian or Egyptian, and were gods that were genuinely worshipped at the time (Anita Diamant has done her research well). There would appear to be a division between the way that women and men worship gods here: although Jacob does cry out the names of other gods when suffering from a sick stomach, he does increasingly come to rely on the God of Isaac his father, and Abraham his grandfather. The women worship a whole variety of gods, such as the god of beer, and the goddess of victory and fertility. Laban also has a whole teraphim of little gods, until Rachel famously steals them from him, so that her detested father may be cursed by their absence. Leah, for her part, declares that they do not need gods, only each other, but even she upholds the traditions of the red tent, to which the women retreat whilst menstruating. Having departed from Laban, Jacob and his family set out and make their way in the world. Leah and her sisters find that the traditions of the red tent are not upheld by the women of the different tribes that their sons have married into, and the integrity of the red tent itself becomes threatened.

What does not seem to be important here is what gods are worshipped, or how many, but that the roles of men and women are changing. There have previously been matriarchs as powerful as the patriarchs - Sarah, wife of Abraham, and Rebecca, wife of Isaac. Yet Leah and Rachel are not given as much prominence in Jacob's tribe. Not that the lot of women, such as Laban's slave wife Ruti, is all that fantastic. But with the loss of their traditions, the potency of these women seems to diminish. Although the four wives of Jacob add to his richness with their skills, there is a danger that those women who are not enslaved, will be even more reduced in their roles as they become mere bargaining chips in transactions amongst men. Rebecca sadly concludes that Dinah will not be her heir at Mamre. Jacob, shamed to have discovered that Rachel did actually steal Laban's teraphim, destroys these icons of household gods that have been used to welcome Dinah into adulthood. And from there, things do really start to go wrong. But is this due to a curse of their gods, or because Jacob has grown suspicious of his wives and their ways, and now relies instead on his avaricious sons Simon and Levi for advice?

There are some differences from the Biblical account of the same events. In the Bible, Laban welcomes Jacob with open arms. Jacob also wrestles with the Lord God himself before reuniting with Esau, but Anita Diamant suggests that his broken leg and fever were caused by an encounter with a wild boar instead (although, since Dinah is accompanied with Joseph when she encounters the boar, we are never quite certain that it is real, since Joseph has a tendency of seeing visions, just like his father). In the Bible, it's Jacob who gives Joseph his famous technicolour dreamcoat, but in The Red Tent, Rachel is the more likely tailor of this garment that Joseph's brothers sneer at. There is not much mention of a famine in Egypt, even although Zafenat Paneh-ah is in power there. A few of Jacob's sons would have appeared to die earlier than they do in the Bible, and Judah and Reuben are not as squeaky clean in the Bible as Anita Diamant presents them. And the last mention of Dinah in the Bible is "Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?", which does not forebode well... Anita Diamant accounts for these differences by relating that these are the forms of the tales as carried down by the women, whilst Jacob's account of the same events is quite different. Since Jacob has only the one daughter, it would not appear that the women's stories will survive, but maybe the story of Dinah is too terrible to be forgotten...

Some of the most compelling passages are the birth scenes: like Rachel before her, Dinah becomes a successful and much sought-after midwife, and Diamant has researched the herbs and the methods they would have used at that time very well. This is most of all, a highly compassionate novel - when Dinah leaves us, her audience, we are truly sorry to see her go, and that it a sign that Diamant has created a vibrant and powerful character. The minor characters also make a great impact - although her scenes are few, if ever there is a film of The Red Tent, I would suggest that the role of Werenro be played by Julia Roberts. If you know the Biblical story well, then you will know that there are quite a few horrors in store for our Dinah, and Anita Diamant has handled these well. But as equally important as the horrors are the delights of this book, and they are as numerous as the tribe of Israel of which they tell. Although this novel has been mainly marketed at women, male readers will be equally enthralled by Anita Diamant's splendid narrative. I have done an online reading guide - interested readers can contact me for this.