Rating: 
Summary: so wonderful
Review: I came across this book by accident, but once I started I couldn't put it down. Everything about it is so romantic and passionate (not in the romance sort of way). Strong women who perservere in the hardest of times. i would totally recomend this book.
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Summary: Feminist revisionism
Review: I love historical fiction, but I prefer that any "modern" sensibilities stay out of the story. While I expected, and looked forward to, a fully realized biblical story told from the female point of view, I was not prepared for a feminist agenda. I also expected, and looked forward to, some expansion and revision of the bare facts of the original story (which is, after all, the task of the historical novelist), but I found Diamant's efforts to be perverse and lacking in imagination. I give the book three stars, as I do believe it does a decent job of depicting some aspects of the daily life of women.
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Summary: An Earthy Tale
Review: I cannot fault the writer on her unusual approach to the tale of Jacob's wives and the story of Dinah. However, the story seemed to be an unveiled advertisement for the Wicca religion instead of supporting the historical approach given in the Bible. By the time Dinah began her menses cycle and I labored through the graphic earthy account of thier pagan ritual my stomach was queasy. As a Christian I was offended that the "bad" guys were the men that opposed the pagantry. I would not recommend this book to anyone and am sorry I spent the money for my copy.
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Summary: The passionate tale of Dinah
Review: I picked up this book on a whim. I am not a Christian however was raised in the Christian church. Thus I am familiar with the tales of Joseph, Jacob and his wives, ect. However, I have a renewed appreciation for these characters. What a rich book on the strength and sisterhood of women. Where the bible many times neglects herstory, this book offers an unique look at complex bonds and friendships between women, sisters and mothers/daughters. It also honors women spirit. The strong theme of birth, menstruation, coming of age are incredible. I highly recommend this book. What a unique take on both Jacob and Joseph also.
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Summary: What a beautiful book
Review: This is a great book for women and feminists who like historical tales of strong women.Once I picked it up, I couldnt put it down. The story is mezmerizing.
Rating:
Summary: Great historically, poor biblically.
Review: Let me admit first that I did not finish the book. I lost interest in the author's style of writing. I commend the author for her seemingly accurate and exact portrayal of biblical customs and cultures. It was quite interesting to read of the basic yet complicated tasks the women had to perform on a daily basis. The women of that day put our high-powered career women to shame. There were two things I strongly disliked about the authors writing. First, the entire tone of the book (including the title) and the style in which it's written carries with it an overpowering feminist tone. I get the impression the author wrote the book with the intent to show how powerful women are, and how much power they carry even though men strut around pretending to be in charge. The message of "sisterhood" becomes sickening eventually and that's one element that made me stop reading. I love being a woman. But we need men. We compliment men and they compliment us. Without men the world would be one flighty, silly catfight of a red tent. The second reason I stopped reading (and the most offensive to me) is that Ms. Diamant attributes the birth of Isaac to Rebecca to a false goddess. She (Ms. Diamant) has complete freedom to write any way she chooses. I fully expect her to change and embellish in any way she wants. But for a Jewish woman to take a biblical event as important and prominent in the bible as God's promise to Abraham to bear him a son through the aging Rebecca and attribute it to a figment of her imagination she calls a "goddess" is highly offensive to me and should be to her. Certainly it's her right to do that but it makes me wonder WHY someone would do that. What would the motivation be behind wanting such a significant event in biblical history that's an act of the One and Only True God to be attributed not only to a false god but a "godDESS"? My only conclusion is that Ms. Diamant suffers from thinking of her sex more highly than she ought and not thinking enough of the Father God that made her.
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Summary: Historical Fiction at Its Best
Review: I appreciate a work that reflects a solid understanding of the time in which it is set, as well as a reliable familiarity with the daily life and culture of the subject. Such is The Red Tent. But it's not a history book, it's fiction - and as such, it successfully weaves a fantastic and engaging tale into its historical backdrop. It's a captivating epic with an authentic woman's voice. Although this piece is set during a biblical time, do not expect religious dogma or a "bible story" - it is meaty historical fiction, both plausible and gripping. I was thoroughly engrossed from the first paragraph to the last. If you're looking for something to lose yourself in, read the Red Tent.
Rating:
Summary: A gorgeous, intricate, and passionate read.
Review: Anita Diamant's The Red Tent is a rich, believable companion to the already familar tale of Jacob & CO. found in Genesis. After being somewhat familiar with the rags to riches tale of Joseph via the "Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", I was really excited to expand my understanding of biblical "truth" especially with a story focused completly on the women in this society. After all, women have always carried the codes of light, the often neglected feminine mysteries of the life force. The Red Tent does not disappoint anyone seeking an invitation to sit with his/her inner anima. This book feels channeled. The voice of Dinah reads as if she knows that she has been given an opportunity to share with the reader a missing fragment of truth. What truth? That these stories of the feminine need to be reclaimed and brought out for us to hold an even more balanced understanding of the truth that the essence and energy of woman is sacred. Dinah and her mothers share the experience of the feminine in the red tent. It is a place that honors the sacred mysteries of women: birth and death, the cycles of the moon, and Goddess worship. The Red Tent is an intimate world of love and loss, hope and tragedy. You'll will start to befriend all the characters found within and the distant past soon will seem not as unfamiliar as you may have orginally thought. I read this book on the beach. I read it for hours at a time. It will engross you to no end. Diamant is a wonderful writer. The language she uses to describe the daily life of shephards, farmers, slaves, and midwives is natural and unique. I laughed and smiled at the details given, cried at some points too. The Red Tent is a wonderful book. It reads true to me. I'm glad I've expanded my understand of biblical times while being throughly entertained at the same time. The Bible is a boring read, this isn't in the least.
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Summary: Cute but not well-informed on history of ancient Canaan
Review: It was enjoyable to read but can be misleading to someone having little background on the ancient near east and biblical history. The author attempted the impossible: to put a story that was written about mythical characters into historical context! It is amusing to me as a student of womens' issues in ancient Israel that this book is being publicized as a feminist retelling of the Jacob tale. It is very true that much of the matarial in the Tanach (the Hebrew Bible) was written and edited from a male perspective and I suspect that the lack of attention to the Dinah character before and after the events at Shechem may be the result of the doings of one or more male redactors. However, the story of Dinah is part of the J source of the Torah, the very work that scholars have suspected to be the work of a woman -Richard Elliot Friedman thinks *maybe* while Harold Bloom thinks the writer was definately a she, without question. I also think it was a woman and I strongly suspect that she wrote more on Dinah, material that was later cut by a redactor. In fact the incident at Shechem may have been the only reason for the exile to Egypt in J's original story (ironic punishment for the massacre committed by Shimon and Levi). But whatever material had been there before, the story of Dinah and Shechem and the bloody acts of Dinah's brothers along with the rest of the J text is full of anachronistic details which can really tell us something about the world in which this woman lived and wrote, probably the eighth century BCE, possibly a little earlier. Yet Diamant seems to have gone out of her way to replace J's cute anachronisms with details inserted to show the reader that Dinah is living in the Late Bronze Age, roughly 1,000 years before the time of the writer who should not be condemned for knowing nothing about that time period. On the positive side, the book was well-written and an easy and relaxing read and included a family tree which helped for keeping track of the characters. But if you are looking for a liberal or feminist version of the biblical narrative, this is not it. The Red Tent is not well informed on literary and source criticism of the Tanach and I would recommend reading it only with extreme caution. And before reading it, I would recommend getting some background on woman of the bible and the Dinah story and related narratives (like the narrative about the "rape" of Tamar by Amnon and the aftermath) through reading "The Harlot by the Side of the Road" by Jonathan Kirsch, "The Book of J" by Harold Bloom, and "The Hidden Book in the Bible" by Richard Elliot Friedman.
Rating:
Summary: finally!!
Review: the most accurate view of this time in history we will ever get!! Finally an author who dared to tell the story from a woman's point of view. Don't let the word biblical scare you away. This book has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with LIFE. This was one of the most enchanting and beautiful stories I have ever read...finished it in 24 hours...I think everyone should read this book.
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