The Red Tent

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put this book down!
Review: I read the entire book in one day. I couldn't stop reading it; it was so beautifully written, so compelling, and I just had to find out what happened! I have never read a book that fast in my life!!! It's a very intense, very affirming book for those rediscovering women-based spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: A look at reality
Review: The author has written a fascinating novel. However, it is extremely important to realize that it is only a novel. She has taken the stories of the Bible and using her own words and thoughts has created an extremely distorted version of the lives of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs. In many places she directly contradicts the Bible and its commentaries. It is important to note that these people were extremely holy and G-D fearing people whose lives were dedicated to serving their creator NOT random gods and goddesses as the author depicts. It is audacity to try and bring their lives down to our level and to try and portray how their lives were. G-D only wrote the stories that would teach us how to live our lives, not a word more not a word less. Furthermore, in no Biblical source do we learn about their personal inner physical relationships and it is an embarrassment to them to make it up. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail at [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Thank you for bringing the Bible to life
Review: Why aren't there more books like this? People get too caught up in biblical truth, when really the obvious purpose of this book is to bring dimension, emotion and spirituality to the women of the Bible. After reading this book, I'm almost sad that I don't have a red tent to go to with my mother, my sisters, my girlfriends...imagine how much more intimate and spiritual our relationships with other women could be with such feminine quality time.

This is a beautifully told story of little-known women of the Bible. It will give you a rich perspective of a culture that is ancient and removed from many of us. This is definitely worth reading and I would recommend it to any Christian woman!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting at first but.......
Review: Since I love the stories about the patriarchs in the Old Testament, I enjoyed the first part of this book. Reading about how the women lived, trying to visualize them as real people, was fascinating. However, as the book moved on, I was disappointed. The main character Dinah is a victum who needs to be constantly rescued. She never stands on her own two feet. Her life is sad until the end when she is again rescued by a man. She never makes an effort to have her own life until a man saves her. I also found the description of Joseph as a weak egotist who needed her to go with him to visit his father Jacob, hard to believe. Also, Jacob was described as illiterate. That may or may not have been true, but was she any better?

Rating:
Summary: Lovely story!
Review: I often take books from my mother's book shelf. She's an avid reader and has superb taste in books. I over looked this book on her shelf for years. It just didn't seem to be my kind of book. I was finally talked into giving it a try and boy am I glad! This book is beautiful! You have to pay some attention to all the names. It's not the easiest read I've ever had, but it's not the hardest either, and well worth it! There is a family tree of all the names you need to know in the front of the book so don't let that keep you from reading this wonderful book. I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, profound, and perfect.
Review: This was my favorite book when I finished it more than two years ago, and it remains my favorite book to this day. I carry a copy of it in my car and I frequently re-read it. It has been a constant inspiration to me.

"The Red Tent" contains some of the most beautiful language I've ever read. It turns Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah, and Dinah into living, breathing people, with real passions and desires that were left out of the Biblical telling of this story.

Rating:
Summary: A new take on a great story
Review: Anita Diamant is a great story teller, but she doesn't just tell a story in this book, she recreates a world. I love to read Scripture, but there is very little, if anything, in the entire Bible that is told from a woman's point of view. The Red Tent gives a voice to Dinah, who is absolutely voiceless in the Bible, where her story is told by others. The author draws compelling, flawed characters who are a joy to get to know. And her take on the competition between Leah and Rachel, and the different roles they fill in Jacob's life, is totally believable.

Her depiction of the events in Dinah's life are vastly different from the Biblical version. That's why they call it fiction.

Rating:
Summary: the story of some of the first women
Review: This book is about the story of Dinah, whose mother is Leah, first wife of Jacob. In the Bible, the main thread of the story of Jacob. The women whom he married - who happen to all be sisters -- are but a footnote.

Here, Dinah tells of how her mothers grew up in the house of their father Laban, and their status depended on whose mother was who. Thus, Leah and Rachel are the first wives, and their sisters Zilpah and Bilhah are considered their handmaidens and thus the lesser wives of Jacob. However, they are all mothers to Dinah, the only daughter born to any of them, although she neds up having 11 brothers in all.

The story follows Dinah's understanding of her life and the women around her, as they congregtae in the red tent, a place reserved for the women during menstruation, where they form a bond of sisterhood.

However, jealousies and tribal honor arise as Dinah chooses a husband when she is of marriageable age (after her first period, in these times.) This changes the course of her life dramatically, and I though the tale of her adult life was far more fascinating than her childhood and who begat whom.

This is a great read, a welcome departure from all that chick-lit out there.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing and touching
Review: My godmother bought me this book and I have to say I read it in 2 days savoring every word. I was so intrigued by it that I decided to go and read the book of genesis. Yes it was inaccurate but her purpose was to tell a story, a story that a grandmother might tell her granddaughter verbatium. Just read it, look at it and you will get lost in the beautiful story.

Rating:
Summary: Women and History
Review: Really 4.5 *'s. I was first put off by the description of this book. My mother told me that it was about the women in the bible.....just did not really grab my attention. Regardless I picked this book out for my book club anyway. We just loved it. Diamant took different stories from the bible and filled in fictional events. It was so good. I loved how she brought us into these individual's lives, describing so much that is so foreign to us. Read it with a friend so that you can discuss the lives of these women.