Rating: 
Summary: The Red Tent
Review: Anita Diamant has an amazing talent for convincing you that you are part of her story. She has taken a base from the bible, and greatly expanded on it. Her writing style is enticing, drawing you in. Dinah is mentioned in short violent passage in genesis, and is then forgotten. You are given a base on which to set Dinah's story, and without it you wouldn't understand what was happening.
The start tells you about Dinah's four mothers and father. Diamant then begins telling of Dinah's life from her [Dinah's] point of view. Her mothers led a life that cherished a woman's "coming of age" and menstrual cycle. As an only daughter with 4 mothers Dinah is told all her mothers' stories, and tradition is sometimes bent. Although not told from a religious point of view, this book has a great story to tell and is very enjoyable to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Bored in Bethesda
Review: What a tiresome read! Endless and boring. I don't know what all the hoopla is about.
Rating:
Summary: never hinted
Review: In the regular Bible, Dinah is rarely ever heard from or talked about. We are taught that she is the quiet overly protected daughter of Jacob and Leah. This was the assumption I brought to my mind as I began to read this bestseller. I thought well, she will just be the narrorator to her brothers' lives and I thought that the red tent was just one of the colors of the tents they used. After about the 4th page I fell in love with this book. History which as a child had bored me stiff was now fascinating and intriguing. I couldn't believe (although fiction) the life of our ancestors could be so thrilling. This book is nearly the best book I have ever read because of its truthfulness yet originality. And I would like to point out that since I am a little young to be reading this, most of my friends have stated that only their mothers have read it, but this is for any woman at any age who comprehends the hardships of being a woman.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: Diamant's novel is a tale rich with imagery. She paints a picture for the reader that is expansive but not overwhelming. Diamant's account of the biblical character Dinah is hard to put down, to say the least. The relationships Dinah has with the other women of the red tent are beautiful and leave you with a strong sense of family and sisterhood, as if you were related to these women yourself. I found it hard to leave this story; even when it was over I still wanted to know more. Dinah's triumphs and downfalls left me exhausted. Diamant takes the reader through a story that is full of adenture and tragedy. After reading the novel I felt that I had indeed traveled the long journey of Dinah's life.
Rating:
Summary: The red tent
Review: From a minor excerpt of a biblical story, Anita Diamant has created a vivid tale of Jacob's daughter Dinah. Dinah is the only daughter of jacob's four wives, and therefore the sole recipient of generations of women's traditions, stories of her mothers, and family midwives' remedies. Dinah is given the responsibilities of womanhood early on, due to a lack of extra hands for spinning and weaving and other such womens work. She is welcomed into the red tent among her mothers and maids, a practice which was strictly against tradition. But life does not remain so simple for Dinah. Her life takes on a streak of tragedy with the complications of her marriage.
Anita Diamant tells this story quite convincingly through Dinah's eyes. The realistic feel of the story is achieved much through the characters' complexities. Dinah's mothers act as mentors, dispite the lack of control that they are givin as women. Her brothers are cherished playmates and enemies who fail to understand her. Dinah's thoughts of her family are just as complex. They are cherished memories and unforgivable beings. Anita gives us a familiarity with these families that is unattainable through the bible. She binds us to this matriarchal circle of women in a unforgettable way.
Rating:
Summary: The Red Tent
Review: I am an avid reader especially of historical fiction. The Red Tent by Diamant was an absolutely wonderful read. Diamant clearly did her research into the land and culture of her characters, and was completely successful in incorporating "a woman's understanding" into the novel . Dinah's whispers, dreams, and longings become your own within the first chapter. Close your eyes and feel her excitment the first time she sees and touches the river, or experience the fear that she and Joseph experience at the place of Jacob's beating. You will also acknowledge Leah and Racheal's jealousy and the longing of a barren woman to feel a child within her own body.
It is not "spiritual" or "religious" although the characters, places, and events are taken from the Bible. It is simply a story of a woman's being.
This is one of the most well written and captivating books that I have read in a long time.
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Summary: Incredible! I loved loved loved this book!
Review: I cannot express just how wonderful I found this book to be. It is one of those books that gently leads you to another time and place and opens itself up to you so that you feel immersed in this other timeplace and savor each moment you spend there. I checked this book out of the library but when I finished it I ordered a copy for myself. This book is a rare gem that entices one to read and reread, to dwell among its pages and become lost among them.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book
Review: This was the best book that I have read this year. My daughter begged me to read it, and I finally gave in just to appease her. I loved the characters, and I was so sorry when the book was completed. I loved this book.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding!
Review: Heroines: Varied Follow the trials and tribulations of Dinah, one of the many faceless daughters of the Bible, from the beginning of her life in the mystical Red Tent of her many mothers, through heinous betrayal, and finally a long-awaited and hard-won healing.
What worked for me: I found the story to be unique, rich, inventive, and gripping. I didn't put the book down unless I absolutely had no choice, and even then I found my mind wandering back over what I'd read, trying to piece it all together. Size was not an issue in the book, but the women depicted were a varied tapestry of sizes, shapes, and colors. Personally I love birth stories so the fact that a large portion of the book centered on the lives of midwives was a bonus in my eyes. Also considered to be a plus were the many love stories included. Granted, I don't care for the notion of sharing a husband with other women, but I understand why polygamy was practiced in those days and it was certainly interesting to view Ms. Diamant's idea of how this particular clan of sister-wives might have interacted.
What didn't work for me: Because it spans a lifetime some sections of the book required a long set-up, but for the most part the story was so well-written that I didn't mind waiting to reach that next level. This next part isn't exactly about "what didn't work for me" so much as "what didn't work for other people", but it was such a sticky topic that I thought I would toss my two cents in on it: Before picking up a copy of the paperback, I ...saw several scathing comments about it from both sides of the women's issue. Many people complained that the women were depicted as being too pagan and given too large a role in the book, while the men and their God were more-or-less emasculated and made into villains. I have seen other reviews written by people who were bothered with how limited and powerless the roles of the women seemed to be: cook, wife, slave, concubine. That the women did not design their own destiny but were merely carried along by circumstances beyond their shaping. For myself I carefully considered each viewpoint, took them both with a grain of salt, and guessed that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. The women wielded as much power as they could in the limited roles of females in an ancient patriarchal society which was surrounded, and therefore likely influenced, by pagan beliefs. Honestly, we'll never really have a clear idea of what life was like for the women of the time because most written records don't give much insight in that area, and while there are still cultures in the Middle East which seem unchanged over the centuries we know that they are not "exact" replicas of their ancestors of millennia past and therefore do not give us "exact" answers on this subject. Overall: I enjoyed "The Red Tent" and found it to be a very thought-provoking and fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in Middle Eastern history or women's issues. I do not recommend it to anyone who feels uncomfortable with even the slightest departure from traditional and literal interpretations of the Book of Genesis.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable book
Review: I must first point out that I am not an Oprah-book-reading, Lifetime-television-watching woman. There is nothing wrong with that, but I normally don't like what I call "chick" novels or television. But somehow I was recommended The Red Tent and I got the unabridged audio version from the library. I listened to it while packing up my house for a move. Boy, the time did fly. Anita Diamante's words made the biblical world come to life. As a student of theology, I was swept away by the wonderful descriptions and depiction of WOMEN in the biblical world, something that is very rare. Diamante has obviously done her research, ... But if you don't think of yourself as religious and want to avoid this book because of that, you will be missing out.
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