Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book I've Read
Review: Someone recommended that I read this book, and, from her description of it, I couldn't wait to get it and dive in. However, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to get myself into. This is, by far, the best book that I've ever read. It gets your attention right from the beginning and doesn't let go. I honestly did not want it to end. While it's a fiction novel, I still learned more about the 12 tribes of Israel and the woman's role in society during "Bible times" than I have by just reading the Bible. The book actually made me want to dig deeper into the Bible and look for similarities.
Rating:
Summary: Anita Diamant.....I salute you!
Review: This is without a doubt one of THE BEST and most satisfying reads I have read in a long long time. I love this book for four main reasons: Whereas many authors(read women) of her generation go on and on with verbose and pretentious dialogue. Anita Diamant simply cuts to the chase and tells it like it is. She only takes 300+ pages to her story whereas most other authors would have taken a story like this and turned it into a door stopper of 1000+ pages. Ms. Diamant is the kind of woman writer I have been praying for. She writes with a forcefullness and a bluntness that I can admire without comming across as angry or self-pity. Which is unfortunetly the case with too many women authors out there. Which is one of the reasons I tend to stay far away from modern female literary authors who write fiction. Her prose is exquisite she is the kind of author I aspire to be. So many authors who write Biblical fiction do it as if they are preaching a sermon on morality. Too many of the Biblical characters are treated as holier than thou and saints. Not as flesh and blood human beings. Who have faults and foibles. I actually picked up The Red Tent as a result of Orson Scott Cards Sarah. I promptly dropped 'Sarah' after being turned off of his characterization of the Egyptians being stupid and hedonistic. While the Cananites (the Hebrews) were pure and upstanding people who could and did no wrong. This is a patronising and condescending (if not also racist) attitude. Not so with Anita Diamant. She shows all the characters warts and halos. There are good members of Jacobs family and there are good Egyptians. Diamant that there are many aspects of the human condition. Yes and even those who are in the Bible. One of the things which I found surprising and original is that the women in the story do not worship El (the God of Jacob) they still adhere to their own gods. I thought that was really original. Normally when I read a "sex scene" in a book I quickly skim past it. But Diamants love scenes are so tender. And so are the men in the novel always attentive to the needs of women (we should all be so lucky!) Diamant is one of the few women out there who can really dish out this kind of scene without it being clumsy or gratuitous. I have only one minor quibble, it is beyond me how/why she saw Joseph(my favorite biblical character) as a homosexual. In all my reading of the Bible and research into other sources I saw no evidence of this. Unless of course one wants to consider the fact that he rebuffed the advances of his bosses wife on account that it was wrong. A terrible stereotype if there ever was one. In short this was an excellent book and will definetly be added to my top ten favorites. Pick it up you won't regret it!
Rating: 
Summary: A surprisingly wonderful tale of women!
Review: I had read everything else that the airport bookstore had to offer and so finally broke down and bought The Red Tent. Was I surprised! What a delicious, wonderful, historical, emotional and passionate novel!! The reader is introduced to the many wives of Jacob (Book of Genesis) and their proficiencies and charms each by Dinah, Jacob's only daughter (and as the only woman in her generation - left to continue to hand down the tales, traditions, foods, etc.). The Red Tent is the place where women go to 'be women": pass their menstruations, give birth, prepare for marriage, and when they are ill. This wonderful place becomes the "women's room", the place for the younger ones to learn and the older ones to teach, and place to go if one is ill and need of comfort.
The first half of this book, filled with the sweet remembrances of the women in the red tent; their stories and their skills (midwifery, cooking, gardening, herbs, sewing) is the dearest - it is amongst these mothers that Dinah learns to become a midwife. There is something powerful and beautiful about women celebrating what they are all about. The novel changes somewhat when Dinah tells us the tale of Jacob's family's move into the land of Canaan (to flee the oppressive nature of Laban, the father of Rachel and Leah). Near urban life, Dinah is tempted by the excitement of the city, and the new extended family (Jacob's brother Esau's family). What happens to Dinah in this book is more satisfying that as it is suggested in the bible. In this tale, she is in love with the Prince Shalem and he with her. They are to be wed, but in Shakepearan tragedy, Dinah's brothers (believing she has been raped by Shalem) fall upon the city and murder Shalem and many others. While not a happy event, it is more satisfying, obviously, to believe that Dinah experienced true love. She gives birth to a baby boy and flees with Shalem's mother to Egypt where the boy is raised. In her later years, a much-subdued Dinah eventually stumbles upon her dearest younger brother, Joseph (of technicolor coat fame), she sees her son grown, and she falls in love again. This is a wonderful novel about the value and continuity of the women in history and one I am sorry I waited so long to pick up and read.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Can't stop thinking and talking about this book. I have never been pulled into a story as I was with this one. I feel as if I knew these woman personally and I will carry them in my heart for a very long time. Bravo Ms. Diamant...Bravo.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for character lovers
Review: I need a book to have detailed, interesting characters in order to keep my attention and grab at my heartstrings. This book had them. There were many characters but each was rich with characteristics that empowered me to create them in my own head. Just having had my first child, I was very interested in the midwifery tales and the mother-daughter bonds in the book. I don't over-analyse books but it is hard to find one that I remain interested in enough to finish it and this was definitely one I would recommend and someday read again.
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Summary: A wonderful story.
Review: Based on a fleeting Old Testament reference to Jacob's daughter Dinah, Anita Diamant presents us with Dinah's wonderful life story in The Red Tent. Dinah is the only daughter of four mothers, and each of them -- Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah -- is a different, compelling character, simply and gracefully rendered. Their relationships are complex: loving and jealous, joyous and painful, tender and harsh. The special rituals which come to pass in the red tent, the place of all things exclusively female, form an anchor for the tale as they were an anchor in their lives. I loved this novel... sucked it down like a milkshake and wished there were more. My one regret is that because this is so thoroughly perceived to be a "women's novel," it won't occur to my male friends to read it for its story, and the story is really the point. You'll laugh, you'll cry. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Completely Engrossing
Review: Not since Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) have I been so engrossed in a novel. Ms. Diamant's telling of a story that dates back to the days of Genesis is so moving. Her style of writing pulled me in to the story so that I felt I was truly there with Dinah living through her each emotion and feeling. I've know the story of Jacob and his twelve sons since I was a child but never heard any reference to Dinah his daughter. Ms Diamant's story of Dinah's life was woven to such perfection that I wasn't sure what was fact and what was fiction. I've actually gone back to the Bible to read the story of Jacob again.
I think what also makes this novel so fascinating is the setting and time the story takes place. There are few novels that take place this far back in history and it is evident the reseach that was involved with the writing of this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Plainly spoken, it's just a great story.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you for sharing my story....
Review: As a child, Dinah is cherished by her mothers. She listens to their stories, shares their joys, and learns what secrets the red tent holds through her own experience and her mother's. When Dinah curses her father and brothers for the death of her new husband, I felt the power of her words. After reading her story, and being thanked at the end for doing so, I felt duty-bound to remember her story, and pass it to others. The power there is incredible, and I hope to read more like it.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting - a must if you liked Mists of Avalon
Review: Yes, I realize that is partially based on a biblical character but let's face it she took a lot of liberties with the story. Nevertheless - I loved this book and was so sad when it came to an end. This was so interesting and I can't recommend it enough. I could just see how so many of the things she wrote about could have been possible. Please give this to a friend as a gift but be sure to read it yourself - you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read --- if you don't care about endings
Review: I liked this book -- for the most part. I liked the stories Ms. Diamant writes about Dinah's four mothers. I liked Ms. Diamant's writing style. I liked the glimpses she gaves readers of what life may have been like in those days. I agree with her perspective on what women may have thought, loved and feared in those ancient times. I don't have a problem with the liberties she may have taken with the men of the story. As a matter of fact, I glad that their biblical, historical presence did not stop her from viewing them as the ordinary men that they were in their time. I liked the humanity -- and all the good and the bad that comes with it, that she dresses her characters with. So why the 3 star rating? Because Ms. Diamant runs out of inspiration after Dinah leaves her family and journeys to Egypt, which is about 2/3 into the story. After the climatic event, Dinah's story is not one of great interest. There are no other insights into what her life may have been like in that country, other than living in the garden or helping in childbirth. The other aspect that bothers me about the Red Tent, is that Dinah finds love at the end of the story. I think Ms. Diamant has the same problem most women have. We criticize men for their emotional insentitivity but harbor the hope of finding the one exception to the rule. This is why I don't read romance novels -- don't like them, so I have a real problem when a historical novel ends up being a romance novel.
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