The Red Tent

Rating:
Summary: BORING
Review: Many people have written about the inaccuracies of the bibilical nature of the book. I simply found the stories of these women BORING and PREDICTABLE. There is no depth or realness to any of the characters. Each sister represented a type of woman and each of them responded to every situation in exact way one might expect. BORING. I did not bother finishing.

Rating:
Summary: Great for new mothers
Review: As a new mother, I felt this book pulled at my heart strings - following a girls journey from childhood into womanhood and then to motherhood. You learn to love Dinah early in the story and wish she would never grow up - but she must stand the trials of her mothers before her and learn her place in the universe as a mother, daughter, wife, and sister. Don't listen to people complaining about the lack of biblical accuracy - that's why it is called "BIBLICAL FICTION" and the Bible is mostly fiction anyway so I don't know what the big deal is. I initially thought it would be very religious, but there is no propaganda in it. I am not Jewish or Christian, but I found the story captivating and finished in just a couple of days because I couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: A Small Biblical Passage, An Excellent Book
Review: The Red Tent is the type of book that you will have a hard time putting down. Anita Diamant is an excellent writer who has brilliantly adapted a biblical story that was just a mere mention in the Bible and turned it into a whole book and an excellent one at that.

This is the story of Dinah (Jacob's daughter and Joseph's sister) and her mothers Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. I thought it was interesting to read about the customs that the women followed during that period of time especially about the way the celebrated their monthly cycle and how they beared children.

I looked up the passage in the bible that refers to Dinah and the authors account of the facts was accurate, but most of the story is fictional. We know that the bible was written by men in a time when women were second class citizens, but this book makes you think that maybe there are more women in the bible that could have her story as told as compelling as Dinah's. I hope that Ms. Diamant or maybe another writer can bring more of these stories to life, but for now I highly recommend reading The Red Tent.

Rating:
Summary: Good work of Fiction
Review: I loved the first two sections of this book. We get in on all of the gossip beteween the sisters, and grow to love each one of them for there unique qualities. Dinah was born in the second section, then we learn of her everyday life in Canaan. I liked the third section of the book as well, but as some points it drug on for a while. It also bothered me how they spelled Rebekahs name incorrectly in the book, and I had to go back to my Bible several times to be able to distinguish the fiction from the real story. All in all a good book.

Rating:
Summary: Good and Bad
Review: This story was not bad, in fact it was quite interesting, if you don't mind the descriptions of crude reality. I admired the storytelling and gossiping of the women in the red tent, and I enjoyed the scandals of death, love, hate, and suspicion; but most of all I beamed at the women's prospect of those days, and the difference between men and women.

This book has suspicion, surprise, romance, it is the ultimate women's story. But what i was not expecting were the crude tellings of mens lust for animals, and girls secrets of love. So this book is not truly meant for children.

Rating:
Summary: Pros and Cons
Review: I used this book in a summer course this year where I give my students basic historical and cultural information about a people/period then we read modern fiction set in that same period and culture. I found the book to be very interesting but the history revisionist in many ways especially regarding women and gender roles. Some of my students found the characters boring while others liked the "every day" aspect of the narrative. If you like revisionist history and stories that explore the everyday life then you should like this. A word of warning: the Joseph in this tale isn't the Biblical Joseph as hero you may expect.

Rating:
Summary: Not really a biblical story
Review: While I really did not care for this book, my biggest problem is how they sell it as biblical fiction when it has so little in common with the Bible. As the reviewers before have noted, there is alot of paganism among the women, the "goddess" cult and "girl power" type stuff. The men are generally shown as capable of a few good moments, but mostly as self-serving and uncaring men. Besides the mismarketing, I was just bored by the book. Perhaps because I was expecting something to motivate me spiritually or at least excite me with great storytelling, but this book failed on all accounts. The writing style itself is not so bad, simply done and not overly descriptive but the story is a flop. Pass this one by in favor of The Robe or Quo Vadis or anything with more depth.

Rating:
Summary: Red Tent held my interest....
Review: I finished RED TENT last night. I have mixed emotions about this story but overall I enjoyed it. The author is an excellent writer and I personally feel she dug really deep to write about a bible story so vividly and fictionly (is that a word? :-). I referred back to the bible and other sources for the real account of Dinah's story and must say the author did an excellent job of sticking with the story from the bible. For some reason I just couldn't get into the story until it was 1/2 over and perhaps this was due to my busy schedule but another side of me just found it hard to believe certain things mentioned in the story. (don't want to spoil it for others who have not read it yet) so can't be too descriptive.

Again, I enjoyed the book and would probably recommend it to others.

Great Job Mrs. Diamant, your writing style and character development are to be applauded. The flow of the story was good and I genuinely appreciated the bible names used and those that were made up.

Rating:
Summary: Radical Feminist Claptrap
Review: For anyone looking to gain insight into the Biblical story of Jacob- well, skip The Red Tent. Other than the names of the characters, there is nothing remotely scriptural about this book.

I found this book offensive in the extreme- a perversion; and particularly man-hating.

Rating:
Summary: awesome choice
Review: I loved this book. Granted, there is some deviation from the Bible but I think the author does a relatively good job of telling a beautiful story. Also, the author does a wonderful job of creating details and personalities while staying with most of the framework read in the Bible. Bottom line - great read.