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Summary: The Red Tent
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. A wonderfully written account of how life was for women centuries ago. Anita Diamant keeps the reader interested from the first page of the novel! A must read for anyone who is looking for a great book club book. My friends and I absolutely loved this story!
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Summary: Wonderfully written, genuine and completely heretic
Review: If you want to write a story about pagan Cannonites, feel free to do it. But have the decency to make up the names because the story of Genesis (to the sincere believer) is the story of the living God entering the lives of pagans and setting them aside for a relationship with Himself--away from their pagan past. It's not that the book has inaccuracies (which it tels you it will) it's that the inaccuracies work to undermine the true elements of the real Biblical story. It's like a book on race relations and sensitivity training published by the Klan. Furthermore, to malign Jacob and Joseph (wheter intentionally or not)for the advancement of a philosophy that began in the early sixties by Mrs. Friedan is absolute hubris and should be viewed as breathtakingly offensive to Jews and Christians alike and be seen as an ersatz Christian "Satanic Verses".What's so unfortunate is that we live in an age of such limited Bible literacy that believers don't even know they should be offended by this kind of nonsense. Oh, the writing was nice.
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Summary: Another feminist hype
Review: Someone told me that this book was fantasic - I should have known what to expect coming from an adamant feminist. It didn't follow the Bible story, which was OK, but did anyone else feel like this was, at times, nothing more than a romance novel? Replace the actual biblical names with obvious fictional names, and you have nothing more than a book that would be scorned by the same intellectuals that hyped this up. Why do so many woman (I am a woman) feel the need to share their menstrual problems with other women? Every ladies' bathroom in the country is just another red tent. I got sick of it over and over again. And what exactly were these'secrets' passed down? She never elaborated. This was OK but I would classify it more of a beach read than an excellent read.
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Summary: Enlightening & Endearing
Review: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant is by far one of the finest books that I have read in some time. Diamant seems to have a way of drawing you into the circle of women allowed in the red tent. This book is told through the history of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah of the book of Genesis. In Dinah's story you are brought to the red tent as an eyewitness to exactly how women would have been treated by their men and by eachother. There is humor, mystery, anguish, entertainment, fear and the story of education during Biblical times. Very much like in the Bible itself! This book is definetly one for my personal top ten lists of "must reads".
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Summary: Fact or Fiction?
Review: This book is the imagining of the life of Dinah, met in passing in the book of Genesis from the Old Testament. There she is barely mentioned, one of thirteen children and the only daughter of Jacob, by one of his four wives, Leah. The story is told from Dinah's perspective, as she has learned it from her father Jacob's wives, who all serve in different ways as Dinah's mothers. The book is engaging, since the reader feels privy to the secrets from the red tent. The tent is so named, because it is where the women gather during both their menses and for childbirth. This is a wonderful story of sisterhood, describing the conflicts of jealousy and cooperation between women. The story takes the reader from the time that Jacob met his first love, through the time of his death. The focus however, is Dinah. We love her, from her birth to death, and through all the varied stages and changes of her life. The reader comes to understand more of the culture of Biblical times. However, here is where the difficulty of the book comes in. Diamant has chosen a Biblical character, and yet she changes or ignores factual information as presented in the Bible. Unfortunately, this serves to discredit her storytelling. Old Testament readers are those likely to be drawn to this book, yet may be offended by Diamant's lapses in Biblical accuracy. On the other hand, no one said The Red Tent was a factual account. It is a fascinating read, and those who remember that it is fiction will not be disapointed.
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Summary: I forgot I was reading...
Review: This book was fantastic. The way in which this book was written it's hard to believe that the author wasn't there to see the actual events transpire. She writes with amazing detail, capturing the emotions of the women in her story. Every chapter in this book brought out a different emotion, I cried... I laughed... I logged on to the encyclopedia to see if certain parts of her story were pure fiction, or fact. It was literally impossible to tell at most points in the book what was coming from her mind, or from her research. I've recommended this book to my mother, sister and best friend... And I also encourage you to experience it as well. There are elements of terror, love, learning and growing... You will relate to the women in her story.
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Summary: A must read for lovers of "chick books"
Review: A brilliant, brilliant book. You feel like you are part of these peoples lives from start to finish. The characters are so vivid, you get a real sense of how they lived. And Dinah, the central character is an inspiration to all women. I think the Red Tent concept is a good one, somewhere we can go to bond with our fellow women, where we won't be disturbed by the hurlyburly of everyday life, husbands and children included...I say bring it back. I loved this book, enough to read it a second time.
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Summary: Interesting story
Review: Interesting story, but the writing was disappointing. I didn't get a sense of being there, of feeling for or caring about the characters. I felt like a distant observer, and never felt involved. The story had potential, Diamant missed it...
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Summary: May deal with pagan issues, but not uncommon for the time
Review: I'm writing in disagreement with a customer review which stated that The Red Tent had too many mentions of paganism practiced by the women. The statement is entirely false - Diamant writes from a historical perspective, not a religious perspective - creating what this world might have been like with real people, not myth. Paganism would have been much more prominant and natural to these women - they practiced a combination of Jacob's worship of El, with the religion engrained in them. There are many instances in the Old Testament where wives are punished for not worshipping the Gods of their husbands, or for worshipping idols - which the author demonstrates very well in this book.
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Summary: A Celebration of Womanhood
Review: This is a brilliant book that celebrates the power and fulfillment that can be realized through the qualities and skills traditionally ascribed to women and therefore dismissed as having little or no impact in history or on the advancement of the world's societies. Qualities like the willingness to serve and the desire to nurture. Skills like the myriad "home arts" from the food and textile sciences to agriculture and architecture. Mid-wifery as well as the study and application of herbs - the foundation of all medicine - were almost exclusively the crafts of women. Yet "history" has been defined and chronicled by men. The early scriptures were written by men while women were chattel and then edited and censored quite extensively by men centuries later - while women were still chattel - to create the King James Bible. This is not to say that the stories of the Bible are untrue or unworthy, but that often they are told from a limited perspective offering one dimensional characters learning and teaching anglicized lessons. Diamant's research, which is extensive and credible, is conveyed in a story that is enjoyable, educational, and inspiring. Read The Red Tent to learn about an ancient culture with its fascinating customs and superstitions that gave birth to Judaism and Christianity; read it to realize the power of sisterhood and the immortality of motherhood; and read it for this: All popularly accepted history should be taken with a grain - if not a great big chunk - of salt.
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