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Summary: What would you do if you were married to one of the first?
Review: I found Anita Diamant's answer to the question of the first generations of women married to the first few generations of Jewish men extremely interesting--they didn't drop their affiliations to the goddesses the first time their husbands suggested there was only one God. And what they did keep--and perhaps we've kept somewhere in our collective feminine conscienciousness--was shrouded in the Red Tent. I found her investigation of what might possibly have transpired between the lines of the Biblical stories a delight and an inspiration to someone who is also a writer ("Forever Retro Blues"). At any given moment it was difficult to put down. I shared Dinah's pain at the loss of her first love, the loss of her son. This was really a worthwhile read.
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Summary: Entertaining
Review: I received this book as a gift, when I read the back of the book and wasn't to thrilled about reading it. I thought it would be dull and boring since it was concerning biblical times. I was so wrong! From the moment I read the first page, I was addicted. How could I not, the story about a woman and her four mothers, whom happen to be sisters. The reading is easy and exiting. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: I particularly enjoyed the first part of this book. I could not put it down. Overall a very interesting and well written book.
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Summary: keep an open mind
Review: some of the other reviewers missed the boat. the author never claims to have written a historically accurate biblical story. she did an excellent job of telling a story from a completely different view point, compared to what we are used to reading in the bible.
the story was extremely enjoyable. the bonds between family members, and the events that took place held my interest the entire novel. this is one of my top 5 books of all time. do yourself a favor, and read it, with an open mind.
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Summary: The first sentence of the prologue had me hooked.....
Review: The first sentence of the book gave me goosebumps and I knew that this book would be one that I kept for myself and gave to the people that I loved........The Red Tent depicts Dinah's life, the only daughter of Jacob and her biological mother as well as her aunts, whom she viewed as mother's as well. Even though the author does not concentrate on Jacob and his son's or his extended family, I still found it to be one of the best books that I have read in a long time and it breathes a breath of fresh air to all readers that are interested in what could have happened in times where women were viewed as an adquisition and as someone inferior, furthermore, how in some ways it has influenced even how we live today. I have given this book as presents for female friends for as long as I can remember. It is a book that shows the suffering, the joy and the life that women lived in times where men were the masters and rulers and although times have changed, you clearly can see yourself reflected in at least one of the female characters and identify with their struggles on love, men and personal tribulations. This book was so great, inspiring and fulfilling that I found that I could not put it down and finished it in two nights. It is rare that I re-read a book and I find myself coming back to this book and reading it all over again and the thing is, that everytime I read it, I get something new out of it, I learn and understand something else, and I get wrapped up in it all over again. Praise to Anita Diamant for writing such a beautiful and exquisite book!
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Summary: What a pleasure to read!
Review: What a well-written book! From the moment I picked the book up, I couldn't put it down! Although I get the impression that this book is geared towards an older audience, I am 22 and was really moved by the book. As far as the religious critisms go, while the book may be biased and not 100% accurate, I feel that it is worth putting these views aside to enjoy this touching story of Dinah's journey. I am Catholic and was not at all bothered by the book.
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Summary: a vivid and imaginative portrait
Review: I have not yet quite finished "The Red Tent," but have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I am a Christian and a traditionalist in many ways, but I do not share some Christian readers' apparent distaste for Diamant's presentation of the patriarchs. I have long seen the Hebrew Scriptures as a story of a people's often-stormy relationship with God, and their discovery of what it means to be God's people. Jacob is still only the third generation called into the covenant made with Abraham. God is a mighty God, but the people to whom He gave free will can be stubborn! One critical reader asserted that if Jacob were really the kind of man presented in "The Red Tent," Judaism and Christianity would not exist today. I have to differ: these faiths exist today, not because of the man Jacob was or wasn't, but because of the God that God is. Diamant's story enhances the feeling I have for this particular stretch of Genesis. It creates a wonderful picture of daily life at the time, and gives what I would guess might be a fairly accurate picture of this family's spiritual experience. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures God's people continue to fall back to the comfortable worship of false gods. That Jacob's clan does not yet fully understand what it means to be the people of the one God strikes me as very human and very likely. We look back on these stories (whether in scripture or in a book like Diamant's) with the perspective of millenia of institutional monotheism. Jacob and his family lived a world that's so long past it takes (for me, at least) the imagination of a writer like Ms. Diamant to fully bring it to life.
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Summary: Devastating Love and Sacrifice
Review: I have never read a piece of fiction with such a vivid description of one's lineage. The chronology, the geneology was so graphic. At times, I was so caught up in the emotions, it was as if I were a member of Dinah's family, and, I suppose, I probebly am. I was initally taken aback by the prologue in which Dinah addresses the reader in a rather sarcastic, chip on the shoulder manner. She ends her story with thanks and blessings in a way that is unfamiliar to me, but then most of what her life was about is unfamialiar to me.
The concept and richness of having many mothers to raise her left me feeling as if I had missed out on something valuable in my childhood, not to have such a diversity of maternal guidance. I was moved to tears more than once while reading her story: * When Leah and Jacob's relationship began and was consumated, regardless of her "strange" eyes and unusually tall physique. * When Leah showed extraordinary compassion toward Ruti and despite all of that, Ruti's horrible death. * As Dinah and Shalem fell in love and their subsequent suffering. * The fierce, loyal bond between Dinah and Meryt, and the loss when Meryt died. * Dinahs' pain of having to let her son go out into the world. I was held captive as she carefully gave me intimate knowledge of each of Laban's daughters. Their features, characteristics, and their relationships are well described, such as Zilhpah's devilsh side, Bilhhah's kind, sensitive, soulful traits, Leah, the practicle one, and Rachel the narcissist. The importance and prestige of a midwife was conveyed throughout the book in various ways. * How each woman related to the others in the Red Tent. * The importance of all the ceremonies within it and the celebrations of womanhood. * The sense of loss when we learn that the rituals will end because of the intermarriages with the "foreigners". It was interesting also, to learn about the way the men of that time related to each other.
* Their custom of heated negotiation and how they deferred to each other with words of flattery and praise. I was amazed at the amount of undeclared power many of the women possessed in the Canaanite society despite their lowly social ranking, and the contrast to the Egyptian social status of women. I was mystified by Dinahs ability to predict the future and curse those who she despised and caused her misery.
Diamant created and maintained tension throughout the book made it a compelling read. * The prediction of Dinah's finding her future near the water, the first journey of her family when her father, Jacob was attached in the night by a "phantom creature".
* When Jacob was to meet his brother, Esua for the first time after so many years.
* When Dinah is ordered to stay with the grandmother, Rebecca. It was interesting to watch the drasitic change of Jacob's original honest, forthright, noble character to one of a selfish, cruel, and rather eccentric patricarch just before Dinah and Shalem were to be married. It almost seemed as if he was going senile... I'm impressed with amount of research that Diamant must have put into this book. She is a gifted writer who was able to engage me from the first chapter of this book.
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Summary: It doesn't get any better than this
Review: This book is at the tippy top of my list for my all time favorite reads. How refreshing that someone has the intelligence and wit to add a strong female edge to an otherwise male dominated group of STORIES.
Anita Dimant is an excellent author who has done a wonderful job of enlightening us with the fact that in Biblical times women were probably not the timid, mindless, baby making machines that the stories would have us believe, but that just like now, women are strong and definitely huge contributors to making a community and men successful. No matter what your belief (and trust me, I am NOT main stream) this is an entertaining and wonderful book. P.S. Anyone wanting to throw their copy away on "trash day" send it to me. The more copies to pass along to my fellow females, the better.
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Summary: Traditionalist View Cannot Darken the Light of The Red Tent
Review: ... I would like to make a few comments. I understand you are likely a traditionalist and have great faith, which I respect wholeheartedly. However, I believe you give this book the kind of review that speaks of prejudice and a closed mind that fears others' perspectives. You must acknowledge that biblical stories, whether in the Holy Bible or the Torah, severely lack a female point of view. No matter how far off-base you believe these interpretations are, don't you understand the pure value of different readings of an ancient story? We are all left with many stories untold from our past and it's only human nature to imagine what it might have been like to be a man or a woman from that time. Even if you don't agree with an interpretation, it is only an ungrateful scholar who calls a story teller's literary work "trash", misspells the crucial character's name, and laments the idea of donating the book "lest someone else be inspired by such desecration".
I loved the book. I released all my faith-based learning and allowed myself to be told a story, as if I were a child. I loved and heard and cried with Dinah. It was a masterfully told story. Yes, it was from the point of view of a woman, surrounded by other women, who were not often in the presence of men in those days except to serve at table and in bed. Yes, some men in the story commit sins and allow fear, jealousy, and hunger for power lead them to do so. But not all the men in the story are hated as you claim. In fact, Dinah is so loving towards her fathers and brothers for the majority of the book that it is even more troubling for the reader in the end to scorn their actions which lead to Dinah's separation from her adored family. But you feel sadness too. You know this family. Even in our own families, we witness bad deeds. To ignore them is unwise; to accept and try to understand them is called love.
Have you considered that women reading the Torah or the Bible have felt a similar alienation that you felt reading this work as a man? That we had a limited role in the most revered literary works of the world, that we were shamed easily and could be sold as slaves for the sins of our parents, that we were fully dependent on men for our quality of life? This book at least attempts to fill a gap where women contribute more to the stories of old, where we hear detailed stories instead of vague and cruel descriptions. I dare say it is closer to the truth than the Bible passages that mention Dinah (and acknowledge the wrong-doing of her brothers). Knowing your place in things and knowing the stories of your ancestors reminds you of how the generations have formed one another.
No faithful and intelligent person is going to read this story and take it for fact. It's a journey that stands alone, in addition to being a perspective on our past. Your offense to the book saddens me; we are past the age of burning books and lashing out at so-called evil 'feminist' texts.
A feminist only means a person who believes women should have equal opportunity to men. That's all. Anything additional is just the belief of that individual. It's not about hating men. It's not about changing everything that's traditional and distorting any truths. In fact, I found joy in celebrating womanhood with the characters in the book and it made me reflect on how insecure most people still are about things that happen often in the lives of women.
We are not all the same, and I do not agree with you. And that's okay. Thanks for reading my comments. I hope you take them without defense in your heart, but instead acceptance for the thoughts of others. ...
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