Rating: 
Summary: Ambilavent Feelings
Review: The Red Tent left me with ambivalent feelings. All in all, I found this an intriguing story. However, as a student of the bible, I was sad to see God left out of this story. Was it a sacrilege to use the revered characters of the bible to spin a tale the likes of "Clan of the Cavebear"? Or: was this an example for us that the characters of the bible were ordinary people struggling through life just like us? Was the "worldliness" of this story representative of what a challenge lay before the sons of Abraham in developing faith in the God of their father? Overall, a thought-provoking and entertaining story.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: The best book I've read in a long time--if not ever. As someone who was raised Catholic and who's always struggled with the difficulty in applying the Bible to modern day female life, this was especially meaningful. A beautiful story and absolute gift for the imagination.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible, Inaccurate Tripe
Review: I Love to read. When this book was recommended to me I looked forward to a fascinating book about the beginnings of Judiasm and a woman's look at the Bible. Instead I found it to be boring, inaccurate and disgusting. The lowest rating allowed was one star, otherwise I would have given it a zero. Anyone who tries to slant a rape as being a "she invited it" is sick. This is definitely the first and last book of Anita Diamant's that I ever intend to read.
Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Novel
Review: I have read several novels over the last year and I thought all of them were o.k., but I ussually felt like I was forcing myself to finish them. I finished The Red Tent in just three days and could not put the book down. The characters are well developed, the historical and religious aspects are well researched and it is a truely well written story. I am sure all women will love it. Men could enjoy it if they can get passed all of the talk about menstration and childbirth.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: The story of Joseph and his brothers has always fascinated me. This "telling"of the story of Dinah was so interesting. I have taken classes on "The Red Tent". Would highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Graceful, moving, and insightful
Review: This book is one of the most amazing that I've ever read. I would even dare to put it far and above some of my best-loved classics. The core of the book is really the relationship between the women of Jacob's family. The dynamic between mother, daughter and aunts really describes relationships today. Diamant creates a heart-wrenching and intimate portrait of Dinah that even at its most tragic, sends forth a ray of hope.
Rating:
Summary: Thank You, Anita
Review: I have 5 daughters and 1 son--In fact, my oldest daughter gave me this book to read. As tenderly as I love my son, this book explains the complex deep feelings I have for my girls intermingled with all my hopes and dreams for them---as were my mother's for me. Why wasn't the Bible written by a woman?
Rating:
Summary: A celebration of women
Review: The Red Tent is set in biblical times, narrated by a minor biblical figure named Dinah. However, it is not dominated by an overbearing male God. Rather it pays tribute to the deities held sacred by many "pagans" of the time, and it revolves around women. In that time many women spent their menses in a red tent. The common pretense was that it was for religious reasons, however the word religious does not seem adequate. The time that women spent in the red tent was a time of rest and rejouvination. A time to step away from the everyday toil of life and treasurewhat it means to be a woman and mother and wife. The time in the red tent was sacred. Petty quarrels, and men, were left out and each woman was respected, as an equal, for the thing that are an intrinsic part of being a woman. Dinah's life is marked with great loves and losses, reflecting life in that time. She is hated, loved, respected amd disgraced. And she deals with all of these things on her own terms. She has a keen understanding of who she is, and her own self-worth, and is able to face her losees and accept her gifts.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Of the many problems I have with religion is that women seemingly had no place. I've tried the Bible and I got tired of women being relegated to role of wife and mother. While Diamant's book has no shortage of that (probably because it's true), she manages to showcase the strength of the women of this novel. I was craving a feminist view of a Biblical society, and Diamant's book quenched that desire. It's a wonderful story!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully written but VERY depressing....
Review: As a work of historical fiction, this book is excellent. It's engaging and written in a very conversational tone that was easy to follow. The main characters were also written with a great deal of emotion and depth, and you as a reader see them as the narrarator does. It's paced in a way that makes you really not want to stop and put it down. Besides some of the other things other reviewers have brought up re: the downsides of this book, the one thing I would warn any potential readers about The Red Tent is that it is very, VERY depressing. Do not read this book if you are not in a good mood because it will most certainly NOT cheer you up. It is not by any means a happy, 'feel good' kind of story. Despite the rather depressing story I still got wrapped up in the book, with its descriptiveness and language, and after all, that's why we read in the first place! An excellent choice for adults who love historical fiction.
| 
