Rating: 
Summary: Timely
Review: At the time I was reading The Red Tent, I was also awaiting the home birth of my granddaughter. I was very moved by this book and have recommended it to all my women friends, young and old.
Rating:
Summary: The *kayters* review
Review: The Red Tent is a fictionalized account of Dinah, the only daughter of Leah and Jacob in the Bible. Genesis 34 tells her story, but Dinah says that story does not portray the exact picture of what happen. The indication in Genesis 34 is that Dinah was raped by a prince of Shechem and then the king offered a bride-price for her to her father. However, her brothers were insulted and felt that their sister had been treated as a whore, so they demanded that the prince, the king and all the men in Shechem should be circumcised in order for the prince to be able to take Dinah for his bride. The king agreed to this, but two days after the city's circumcision, Dinah's brothers came in and killed all the men in the city. Dinah's story ends there in the Bible. The Red Tent begins with Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah as young girls/women, at the time Jacob comes to their camp to find a wife. It continues through the marriages, the births of the children and then Dinah begins to tell her own story. I won't go into detail about what happens in the palace with the prince, because that would spoil the story. However, once the prince has died, Dinah flees her family and travels to Egypt, where she lives out the rest of her life. In this retelling, readers will recognize scenes from Genesis, such as Leah becoming Jacob's bride ahead of Rachel, Jacob's struggle at the river Jabbok and Joseph's becoming a ruler in Egypt. However, The Red Tent tells these stories in a slightly different way. They are all told from Dinah's perspective or from her mothers' perspective. Having never really given much thought to the story of Dinah, I found this book quite entertaining and VERY thought-provoking. Re-reading Genesis 34, I found that Dinah's account of her time in the palace in Shechem does not contradict the Bible. So, read the story with a thoughtful mind and heart. Ms. Diamant has a remarkable way of making the past come to life and I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style and her characters.
Rating:
Summary: Womanly and Wonderful!!!
Review: From the moment I picked up this book I was hooked! The Red Tent is superior in it's portrayel of women in that time. I am a Midwife and a Childbirth educator. I give this book to all my clients. I think every woman should read it!
Rating:
Summary: What would you do if you were married to one of the first?
Review: I found Anita Diamant's answer to the question of the first generations of women married to the first few generations of Jewish men extremely interesting--they didn't drop their affiliations to the goddesses the first time their husbands suggested there was only one God. And what they did keep--and perhaps we've kept somewhere in our collective feminine conscienciousness--was shrouded in the Red Tent. I found her investigation of what might possibly have transpired between the lines of the Biblical stories a delight and an inspiration to someone who is also a writer ("Forever Retro Blues"). At any given moment it was difficult to put down. I shared Dinah's pain at the loss of her first love, the loss of her son. This was really a worthwhile read.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining
Review: I received this book as a gift, when I read the back of the book and wasn't to thrilled about reading it. I thought it would be dull and boring since it was concerning biblical times. I was so wrong! From the moment I read the first page, I was addicted. How could I not, the story about a woman and her four mothers, whom happen to be sisters. The reading is easy and exiting. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I particularly enjoyed the first part of this book. I could not put it down. Overall a very interesting and well written book.
Rating:
Summary: keep an open mind
Review: some of the other reviewers missed the boat. the author never claims to have written a historically accurate biblical story. she did an excellent job of telling a story from a completely different view point, compared to what we are used to reading in the bible.
the story was extremely enjoyable. the bonds between family members, and the events that took place held my interest the entire novel. this is one of my top 5 books of all time. do yourself a favor, and read it, with an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: The first sentence of the prologue had me hooked.....
Review: The first sentence of the book gave me goosebumps and I knew that this book would be one that I kept for myself and gave to the people that I loved........ The Red Tent depicts Dinah's life, the only daughter of Jacob and her biological mother as well as her aunts, whom she viewed as mother's as well. Even though the author does not concentrate on Jacob and his son's or his extended family, I still found it to be one of the best books that I have read in a long time and it breathes a breath of fresh air to all readers that are interested in what could have happened in times where women were viewed as an adquisition and as someone inferior, furthermore, how in some ways it has influenced even how we live today. I have given this book as presents for female friends for as long as I can remember. It is a book that shows the suffering, the joy and the life that women lived in times where men were the masters and rulers and although times have changed, you clearly can see yourself reflected in at least one of the female characters and identify with their struggles on love, men and personal tribulations. This book was so great, inspiring and fulfilling that I found that I could not put it down and finished it in two nights. It is rare that I re-read a book and I find myself coming back to this book and reading it all over again and the thing is, that everytime I read it, I get something new out of it, I learn and understand something else, and I get wrapped up in it all over again. Praise to Anita Diamant for writing such a beautiful and exquisite book!
Rating:
Summary: What a pleasure to read!
Review: What a well-written book! From the moment I picked the book up, I couldn't put it down! Although I get the impression that this book is geared towards an older audience, I am 22 and was really moved by the book. As far as the religious critisms go, while the book may be biased and not 100% accurate, I feel that it is worth putting these views aside to enjoy this touching story of Dinah's journey. I am Catholic and was not at all bothered by the book.
Rating:
Summary: a vivid and imaginative portrait
Review: I have not yet quite finished "The Red Tent," but have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I am a Christian and a traditionalist in many ways, but I do not share some Christian readers' apparent distaste for Diamant's presentation of the patriarchs. I have long seen the Hebrew Scriptures as a story of a people's often-stormy relationship with God, and their discovery of what it means to be God's people. Jacob is still only the third generation called into the covenant made with Abraham. God is a mighty God, but the people to whom He gave free will can be stubborn! One critical reader asserted that if Jacob were really the kind of man presented in "The Red Tent," Judaism and Christianity would not exist today. I have to differ: these faiths exist today, not because of the man Jacob was or wasn't, but because of the God that God is. Diamant's story enhances the feeling I have for this particular stretch of Genesis. It creates a wonderful picture of daily life at the time, and gives what I would guess might be a fairly accurate picture of this family's spiritual experience. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures God's people continue to fall back to the comfortable worship of false gods. That Jacob's clan does not yet fully understand what it means to be the people of the one God strikes me as very human and very likely. We look back on these stories (whether in scripture or in a book like Diamant's) with the perspective of millenia of institutional monotheism. Jacob and his family lived a world that's so long past it takes (for me, at least) the imagination of a writer like Ms. Diamant to fully bring it to life.
| 
