The Red Tent

Rating:
Summary: A Well written fiction that completely breaks from the Bible
Review: One cannot deny that Diamant is a gifted writer. I agree with another reviewer who compared this book with Zimmer Bradly's The Mists of Avalon (complete with the goddess worship, and revisioning of traditionally viewed "bad" characters). It may have been Diamant's intention to subvert the Biblical text. She succeeds in doing this. The foremothers are goddess and idol worshippers; the forefathers'connection with God seems to pale in comparison. The only men presented in a positive light are ones who the bible clearly sees as negative. Dinah only finds happiness when she leaves the monotheism of her family for the pagan worship of the Egyptians. While other reviewers are anxious to share this with their daughters, I am not anxious to tell my daughter that the foremothers merely put up with the monotheism of their husband but remained worshippers of idols.

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Summary: A Modern Day "Midrash"
Review: I enjoyed reading this book very much. I love the way Diament takes a biblical story and opens it up to include the women characters we don't always hear about. It is like a modern day "midrash," or Jewish legend. And with regard to a previous reviewer who decries it being "Fiction, not totally accurate" -- well he's right, it is fiction, but that is what fiction is supposed to do, create new worlds and stories that take us beyond the realm of true to life events. If you liked this book, you should also check out Tova Mirvis's The Ladies Auxiliary, which does a similar thing with the book of Ruth, only in a modern Southern city.

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Summary: Giving faces to the foremothers (and fathers)...
Review: The Red Tent is the story of the conflict between the old matriarchal worship of the body and the moon and the new patriarchal monotheism that Jacob brought with him to Laban's house. Despite the fact that the book is only vaguely related to the biblical text, it breathes life into the old story in a way that I have never before experienced. I stayed up into the night to finish it and found myself crying when it was over. It reached me in a place that not much in our plastic world can. I can't wait to have a daughter of my own so I can raise her the way Diamant imagines the four mothers raising Dinah.

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Summary: FICTION! not historically accurate!
Review: I agree with the voices who are displeased with this book. WHile Ms. D. is a talented writer, she did not research this book accurately at all. The book has a huge anti-male bias. In fact, the only men who are portrayed positively are Shechem (the rapist), Esav (a murderer she describes as a "baby-faced cutie") and Dina's eventual Egyptian lover. It is interesting to note that Ms. Diamant is married to a convert. Maybe she does't like Jewish men? (In her book they are all stupid, spaced-out, smelly, sexually selfish, and self-centered). I wish she would have read Genesis before writing this. It is completely fictional, and not at all reflective of what occurred, namely the rape of a CHILD! (Dina was 8 at the time)

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Summary: Wonderful Book Club Discussion
Review: We recently read this book for our book club selection. Everyone in the group loved it. The discussion we had about the book is one of the best ones we have had in a long time. I highly recommend this book.

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Summary: Red Tent Bleeds with distortions
Review: I thought this was one of the worst books ever written. It has so much historical distortions that fit neatly into a radical feministic viewpoint of the biblical times. This book demonizes males of the biblical times. Furthermore, it takes the central character and tries to make us believe that a girl who is barely into puberty can have a deep romantic sexual experience and fall deeply in love with an adolescent male after just meeting him. The entire book is contrived. Furthermore, it is an insult and affront to the Old Testament.

Rating:
Summary: Don't read The Red Tent until you read this
Review: I enjoyed the time period in which this novel was set. However, I would have preferred it to be completely fictional and not based upon real people. Why? For the simple reason that there are several obvious contradictions to the biblical account of Dinah and her family. I would encourage any who wish to read this book to first read the following passages from the bible: Genesis 25:19-34, 27:1-28:9, 29:1-35:26, 37:1-36, 39:1-50:26. Not all of these are directly tied to the novel, but they give background and family history. Pay close attention to 29:22-30, 31:34&35, and 39:10&12. Even if you know the stories of Jacob and Joseph, it won't hurt to refresh your memory.

Rating:
Summary: A Different View
Review: "The Red Tent" was an amazing re-telling of a classic Bible tale. It is a truly thought-provoking work; forcing the reader to think and rethink the meaning of truth. The story of Dinah in the Bible recalls the events as they were true to Jacob's sons, whereas this text recalls the events as they might have been true to Dinah herself.

A masterpiece of historical fiction, Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent" is a must-read for women, religious scholars, and fiction lovers everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: A great novel turned sour
Review: It has been said many times already: this is a superbly written book, every page rich with historical detail. The women's roles are championed, and rightly so. Anita Diamant apparently did her homework on ancient Canaanite religion and daily life, and the realism is refreshing. But my gushing compliments must end there.

Diamant's book left me bitter and cynical about the patriarchs and their children. And not so much because she makes us face the hard, cold reality of the story (Dinah's brothers were ruthless in their slaughter of Shechem and in their treatment of Joseph; Laban's family were all idolatrers). These guys had foibles and we must face the facts. But she showed a contempt for the males in this family, choosing to make them all out to be scoundrels, or at least bagelheads.

Although the "spirit of El" is supposed to be with Jacob, it obviously doesn't do him any good. It's not even a trick up his sleeve, much less a way for him to deal with ethical issues or to work for the spiritual betterment his family. He doesn't pray, he doesn't contemplate the spirit world, and his sacrifices seem perfunctory. He just grovels assent to his grandpa's god and otherwise turns a deaf ear to the practices of the women, who spend their days revelling in whatever paganism is in the air. Indeed, most of life's wisdom in this narrative appears to be gained by being comfortable with one's bodily cycles and knowing which sheep have the best wool.

At times I felt compelled to plead with the narrator, "Just consider FOR ONCE that the bare-bones account in the Torah might be a little accurate." The reviewer from Chicago ([e-mail]) is not alone in his (or her) misgivings. Ms. Diamant acknowledges her introduction to midrash, but she apparently failed to draw anything from it. Jacob's incident at the bank of the Jabbock river would have been so much more meaningful as an encounter with Esau's malakh, and Joseph's story would have provided a much-needed resolution if she had portrayed him as the tzaddik he was, and used the cruel incident to raise issues of Divine Providence.

But I suppose that's hardly possible, in a world ruled by the Moon Goddess, the Queen of Heaven, and a host of terraphim.

Rating:
Summary: Very similar to _Mists of Avalon_
Review: _The Red Tent_ is very much like another perennial women's favorite, _The Mists of Avalon_. Where _Avalon_ tells the story from the perspective of King Arthur's women, _The Red Tent_ is the story of Jacob from the women's point of view: his four wives, his mother, and most notably, Dinah, his only daughter. The women are shown as strong, capable, and indispensible to their family's success. In this version Dinah, like Morgaine of _Avalon_, is empowered... a talented midwife, not mere footnote or caricature. This is a book that celebrates womanhood.