Rating: 
Summary: Captivating!
Review: The premise of this book is fascinating and very well-executed. Once I picked it up I was unable to put it down. Anita Diamant does an amazing job of recreating Biblical times through her writing (without it becoming a history lesson), and creates characters that captivate from the first page. Although based on a woman from the Bible, this is a read for everyone, religious or non. I loved this story of strong and beautiful women. This book is about women celebrating their womanhood and marking a plac in a male dominated time - it's an inspirational tale!
Rating: 
Summary: Huge Disappointment
Review: I eagerly began reading this book expecting to love it. I love historical fiction and have read many fictionalized accounts of biblical characters. This book was a huge disappointment!!! It was just awful. My first problem with the book is that the author felt the need to change the facts known about these characters lives as found in the Bible. Why would she do this?? It was absolute slander against the forefathers of the Jewish and Christian faith. Sarah, Joseph and Jacob were totally misrepresented and facts were totally changed to fit the story. I could also have done without the bit about the men copulating with the sheep. Yuck! Besides these problems, I felt that the characters were not developed and the authors writing style lacked descriptiveness. For example, the title of the book is "The Red Tent". At the end of the book, we don't know much about the red tent. Is it truly red? Is it located far from the rest of the camp? Do all the women go at the same time (as the author implied)? While the women are in there, who does the cooking for the men? What do they do in there? tell stories, yes...but do they do weaving or sewing etc. I felt like I was really lacking a visual description of anything she wrote about. My suggestion is that you enjoy historical biblical fiction, try reading some of Francine Rivers books. She stays true to the bible, and yet gives wonderful accurate, descriptive portrayals of what women's lives would have been like.
Rating: 
Summary: pretty
Review: I enjoyed this book a great deal. It was given to me by a friend, who received it from a friend, and I passed it along to yet another woman. Diamant is a revisionist, and for me her story is engaging on three levels. The first is simply how clearly she illustrates the subjectivity of written history. The second is her charming language. While it changes from the beginning to the end of the novel (becoming less focused, I think), the spirit and sentiment remain. The third, of course, is the riveting story line. I do think that the first part of the book, when Dinah lives with her family, is more lucid and moving. However, I was held in thrall from beginning to end. It is clearly a book that will appeal more to female readers, and I am wont to call it a masterpiece of any kind, but it is a lovely escape, well-written and well-thought, and I will probably read it again.
Rating:
Summary: A Gentle Hymn to Jewish Feminism
Review: This novel is a taught and poetic piece of historical fiction that fleshes a brief but gory incident in Genesis: the murder of the lover of Jacob's daughter and all the males in his family, when their guard is down because they have just circumcised themselves to please Dinah's father and brothers. The Red Tent clearly shows how Judaism could have emerged from the pagan and animistic soup of the Fertile Crescent 4000 years ago. Diamant walks in giant footprints; Thomas Mann spent the 1930s writing a 4 volume saga based on the story of Jacob and his many sons. The Red Tent is a powerful meditation on Jewish feminism, on the misty patriarchal origins or Judaism, and on Jewish women's growing willingness to speak to their unease about ritual circumcision (circumcision is the only link between the world imagined by Diamant and the world of her readers). I would argue that this book gives aid and comfort to Jews who are embarrassed by ritual circumcision, and to Gentiles who want to abandon routine infant circumcision.
Rating:
Summary: Nourishment for my soul
Review: This book, written like one of her songs, filled me with such a sense of comtentment and connection. Much too short, I hated to see it end.
Rating:
Summary: There are no words
Review: There are truly no words to describe this book. I was moved to tears almost daily, and I refused to read more than one chapter a day for the fear of finishing too quickly. The book brings you inside its pages like none I have ever encountered before. From beginning to end, you feel as though Dinah is right there next to you, feet in the river, telling you her life's story. Diamant is able to make her readers feel as though they have made a new friend, a cherished friend, in her main character. Like Dinah herself, I think that this book will have a very important place in history.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: It was an easy read for most of it, but got slow at the end when they went to Egypt. I enjoyed keeping up with the story of Jacob and Laban and referred to the Bible to examine the differences. I did get tired of the constant references to bleeding as reviewer Marguerite Salen stated. Maybe I am off base there. For the most part this was a book written by a woman for women.
Rating:
Summary: Fear not, the hands of the midwife are clever
Review: After reading the red tent, I was upset with myself for having ranked several other books as five stars. This wonderful story deserves more credit than any book I have read in a long time.Dinah begins her story, as must all women, with the story of her mother. She has not one, but four, and their lives weave together to tell a story that is not often told - a story of women in biblical times. Diamant is able to explore deeply both the separate worlds of women and how they connect with men. Dinah's mothers tell her all of their stories as a way of continuing themselves through their only girl child, and Diamant has a way of showing both their voices and Dinah's. Then, after a horrible sadness, Dinah must continue on her own. It is at this point that her strength and character, rather than that of her mothers or family, come to predominate. Drawn from one lone biblical paragraph, this book is a wonderful look at what the bible, and our history books, might be like if told from a woman's point of view. Absolutely amazing, and a must for all women with an interest in our commonalities.
Rating: 
Summary: Unnecessarily vulgar and spiritually bereft
Review: I fully expected to love this book, to be swept away by it. The stories of the women of the ancient patriarchs of God are compelling for many reasons, not the least of which is because the Old Testament and Torah accounts are so sketchy. Nonetheless, Tent never captured my heart or transported me the way a really good book can. Just when it would start to lift me into the world of Dinah, I would be jarred by a detailed account of some superfluous vulgarity--usually by a male character--such as Jacob's wet dreams, masturbation, bestiality, the piercing of Dinah's hyman (by her mothers in pagan ritual), murder, battery, suicide, etc. Diamant suggests, via Dinah, that if the women had written the Bible it might have read like this, i.e. The Red Tent. If that had been the case, Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann would have failed to make any stir whatsoever in their day, as they would have been scooped by the Valley of the Canaanite Dolls' graphic records of old. Though I must give credit to Diamant for a book well written and researched. However, I take issue with her graphic details of a life we can only imagine, her assumption that these women knew nothing of the God of their husbands, and her liberal use of "literary license" to assinate the characters of our ancient prophets and their wives. Will I ever be able to erase the image of Rebecca as a vain, painted-up "oracle" (psychic/healer), who has nothing but contempt for others, including her disaffect, doting husband?
Rating:
Summary: Favorite book in a long time.
Review: Guy here, reading a "girl" book...excellent, excellent, excellent. Effortless to read. Great characters and story. Couldn't wait to pick it up each night. Was depressed when finished, wondering how I'd find another book as good.
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