The Red Tent

Rating:
Summary: amazing story for those who understand
Review: This is a compelling story through which, as a young (and green) adult male, I have grown a little wiser. I have grown to understand women and their perspective a bit better. The story has quite a few amazing twists that leave you shaken for hours.
The novel is definitely the best book I've read in years - simply couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Beautiful
Review: This book touched me more than any other book has. The characters are haunting and very human. It speaks to all women, even those who are not mothers--it is about sisters and aunts as well as mothers and daughters. It is about love and sacrifice and loss. It fills a void and gives a voice to those women who came before us--whose voices have never been heard or have been drowned out by men throughout history. Whether or not you believe in the Bible as literal fact, you have to admit that the Bible is written from a male perspective and women's lives are generally ignored with a couple of exceptions.

This book is for those with an open mind. Anybody who knows anything about ancient history and the little we do know about women's lives during this time will find this book to have a vivid, believable interpretation on what their lives could have been like (yes, even with some of the facts being stretched or distorted). However, someone who is fundamentalist in their Christian beliefs will have issues with this book and would probably be better off not reading it if they are easily offended by differing ideas.

Yes, this is a fictional story and, yes, the author has taken certain poetic license with some of the details in the Bible or changed them to better fit her story--we need to keep that in mind and not berrate her for doing that. It is all to be expected in a fictional work. I do take exception to certain problems that some reviewers had, however. For example, some have suggested that the author is "audacious" to portray the women as pagans when they clearly,in the mind of some reviewers, were not. Men and women were very seperate in many ancient societies and many paid tribute to different dieties. It states in the Bible (Genesis ch 35, vs 2), "So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves..." So, it is not unthinkable that these women may have worshipped pagan dieties. To insist that they absolutely could not have because their husbands worshipped the one God is ridiculous. Additionally, some reviewers have been bothered by Dinah's seduction by the prince in the book, suggesting that the author is wrong to gloss over what was actually a rape. Well, if one reads the text closely, it states (Genesis ch 34, vs 2), "...the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humbled her..." There really is nothing in this passage or in later passages that says that Dinah was raped. "Seized" does not necessarily mean by force and "humbled" could simply mean "defiled" (which is a word used in later verses describing the incident). "Defiled" does not, nor has it ever, meant "raped." Remember that during this time period a woman who has had sex before marriage or with a man who was not her husband was damaged goods--she was no longer pure and was now tainted and dishonored...the very meaning of the word "defiled." Therefore, the author's interpretation of Dinah as being seduced instead of raped is a valid interpretation of the text and does not warrant attacks.

The bottom line is that our foremothers deserve to have their voices heard and their lives remembered...even if we have to make their stories up. This book does a wonderful job and it will touch your soul.

Rating:
Summary: Celebration of Womanhood
Review: I found this story to be delightful, intriguing and insightful! It is beautifully told and gave me the unique perpective of what it was to be a woman during that time. Though based on a small part of the bible, I did not have to be versed in the biblical aspect to enjoy this story. The narrative truly pulled me into the story, I could not put it down!

Rating:
Summary: highs and lows
Review: Anita Diamant is a very talented writer who draws you into her story with her emotional highs and lows. Throughout the book I felt that each woman should have a story to tell and leave it in such a poetic way. I appreciated the respectful place she gave to woman and mothers.
This is of course HER story. There are more contradictions than parrellels with the original Biblical story. In order to really enjoy it I had to remind myself that this was her story throughout the book. I think she should have followed the Biblical account more closely or written her story without using the biblical characters and names.
I wished that the author would have left us with more hope.
A sad ending from my viewpoint.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and engaging
Review: This was one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Based on actual Biblical events, Diamant gives a peak into what being a woman during the Old Testament was like, telling the story through the eyes of Dinah, daughter of Jacob. I went through so many emotions reading this book--happy during the weddings and births, shocked at some values or ways or life, horrified by some of the actions of the men, sad at times for the women who struggled with being one of the many wives of Jacob, and laughter at some of stories. Though most events are extremely accurate, Diamant does take some liberties with her writing, but also promotes the book as fiction, not a biography of Dinah, from whom the story is told. Her writing is believable, beautiful and leaves you handing on each word. She is not trying to rewrite the Bible, she is just telling the story of Dinah from a more emotional perspective--from the eyes of a woman.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book! Couldn't put it down
Review: Historically accurate and engaging. It helps make sense of the roles of women in biblical history along with appreciation for women. Actually it made the bible stories surrounding this story look more logical.

Rating:
Summary: Positives and negatives in this book
Review: There are some very positive things and some quite negative things about this book, which average out to a 2-star rating. As for the positives, Anita Diamant is a beautiful writer whose prose almost sounds like poetry at times. Her descriptions of the events and emotions of the women who surrounded Jacob in the Bible are deep and believable. She is a good story-teller and the life of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter is told in an interesting and compelling fashion. As has been noted in many of the other reviews, Diamant does some creative editing to the original story from Genesis. Some may argue that this is a work of fiction and, as such, the author has free reign. However, when you are using the Bible as a source it should be given the respect and accuracy that it deserves. For instance, the author changes the time of 7 years which Jacob worked for each of his first 2 wives to 7 months. This completely denigrates the point that Jacob was a dedicated and determined man who did what it took to meet his goals. Another fabrication is the fact that Rachel asked her sister Leah to step in for her at her wedding ceremony at the last minute. In fact, it was her father Laban who did this and thus showed a weakness in character and an unwillingness to do as he promised, which was to give Rachel to Jacob as his wife. The rape of Dinah is described as a love affair between her and the prince, a point which changed the whole rest of the story. Also the mention of a variety of gods disregards the fact that Jacob, as Isaac and Abraham before him, was loyal to one God. Author Diamant seems unable to accept the fact that women were second-class citizens in those days and she changes the story to accommodate greater power than they really possessed. Hoping that at least most of the background was true, I turned to the author's website and was disappointed to discover that probably the red tent itself did not exist during Dinah's lifetime. Mixing fact and fiction with such a heavy hand is confusing to a reader who hopes to find some truth even in a fictionalized telling of a Bible story. The book starts out on a high note, but begins to fail as the plot twists are fabricated, and the last section, which takes place in Egypt is downright dreary. It's difficult to write a better story than God did.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put this book down!
Review: I read the entire book in one day. I couldn't stop reading it; it was so beautifully written, so compelling, and I just had to find out what happened! I have never read a book that fast in my life!!! It's a very intense, very affirming book for those rediscovering women-based spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: A look at reality
Review: The author has written a fascinating novel. However, it is extremely important to realize that it is only a novel. She has taken the stories of the Bible and using her own words and thoughts has created an extremely distorted version of the lives of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs. In many places she directly contradicts the Bible and its commentaries. It is important to note that these people were extremely holy and G-D fearing people whose lives were dedicated to serving their creator NOT random gods and goddesses as the author depicts. It is audacity to try and bring their lives down to our level and to try and portray how their lives were. G-D only wrote the stories that would teach us how to live our lives, not a word more not a word less. Furthermore, in no Biblical source do we learn about their personal inner physical relationships and it is an embarrassment to them to make it up. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail at [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Thank you for bringing the Bible to life
Review: Why aren't there more books like this? People get too caught up in biblical truth, when really the obvious purpose of this book is to bring dimension, emotion and spirituality to the women of the Bible. After reading this book, I'm almost sad that I don't have a red tent to go to with my mother, my sisters, my girlfriends...imagine how much more intimate and spiritual our relationships with other women could be with such feminine quality time.

This is a beautifully told story of little-known women of the Bible. It will give you a rich perspective of a culture that is ancient and removed from many of us. This is definitely worth reading and I would recommend it to any Christian woman!