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Summary: Red Tent
Review: I put off reading this book for a long time, because I was put off by thinking it was just a "Bible" story. Finally I had nothing else to read, and picked it up (and never put it down!)
It was a wonderful story of women, through the eyes of women, in biblical times, and it put a whole new slant on old stories that came back to me from Sunday School. The characters were so real that I hated many of them immensely, and loved others even more. I cried at the end, both for the characters and for the simple reason that it was over.
At 1 AM on the night I finished, I found myself in the crawlspace under our house, finding my long packed away Bible. Comparing the two versions of the same story just added more to Anita Diamant's wonderful story.
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Summary: A reminder of how similar we are
Review: The Red Tent brought clearly to mind the timelessness and beauty of mother-daughter relationships, not only in our own family but between women of all cultures. It reminds us that whether you live now, then, in the United States or Afghanistan, it is family, love and truth that endures
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Summary: Great Book
Review: Any time an author writes about even marginal biblical characters, it is hard to know how it will be received. I can understand how some people might be offended by this book. I don't think I would recommend it everyone. Yet it is a very beautiful story of Dinah, only daughter of Jacob, sister to the Twelve Tribes of Israel.The author has told a woman's story. Biblically, the Israelites do not yet exist at this point, since Jacob is to become Israel only after the birth of his sons. God was only beginning to reveal Himself to a family He was forming one son at a time.
It makes sense that at that time there were still many people who worshipped other gods, the Great Mother, etc. The place of woman in society was secondary to a man's. That the women would try to preserve what was theirs: their meeting place, the place where they were women together, where to be a woman was not a curse, is plausable. The fictional character Dinah is very believable. She tries to make the best of her situations, learns to suffer and rebuild her life. She triumphs. It's a very well written story. I look forward to Ms. Diamant's next book.
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Summary: A Rich Tapestry of a Woman's Life in the Times of Genesis
Review: I couldn't bear to put this book down and read it in two sittings. The rich details of Dinah's fictional life as a midwife, her husbands, and her hard-knocks experiences were engrossing and inspiring. I closed the last page of the book regretfully, not wanting Dinah's story to end. I became attached to the heroine of this story, who was brave, intelligent, caring, and a respecter of life. I highly recommend this well-written novel to fans of historical romance.
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Summary: Genesis, a Woman's Perspective
Review: My stars! Such a beautiful story. This is the story of Dinah. The daughter of Jacob mentioned in the Bible. There isn't much mentioned of Dinah in Genesis, but Diamant uses her brilliant talent and imagination to weave a story so heartwarming that you wish that it were actually in the Bible. This story is told in Dinah's voice. We get a look at how Dinah viewed her life as a child and young woman growing up in Canaanite society. I was connected to Dinah and the story of her mothers from page one. I was emotionally moved at practically every page. One page I was smiling or laughing. Another page, I was brought to tears. A magnificent book!
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Summary: Pride
Review: I don't know exactly what it was about this book, but I felt so liberated and enlightened when I finished reading it! It makes me proud to be a woman! I recommend it to men and women of all ages.
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Summary: It's not a Bible story....it's just a story. Enjoy it!
Review: To approach "The Red Tent" as a Bible story really does the book an injustice. It's really falls more into the category of a historical novel (though some might argue that the Bible is not "history").
The author takes the basic elements from Genesis, throws in a bit of historical anthropology and a healthy dash of Lifetime Television for Women to create a story that is enjoyable, engaging and thought-provoking.
To say that this book "misses the revolutionary nature of Abram's and Jacob's practice" is really missing the point. This is not a book about the roots of Judaism or any religion for that matter. And it's not about Abram or Jacob or Joseph. It's just a story -- more precisely, one based on the "what if" wonderings of an imaginative and learned author.
Keep in mind that if they made this book into a TV show, it would be a mini-series not a documentary. Enjoy it for what it is.
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Summary: transformational
Review: I was intrigued from the very first sentence of this book. In this piece of fictional history, Anita Diamant gives a voice to women whose stories have long been forgotten or ignored. She does a favor to all women by reviving this sisterhood. The Red Tent is one of my top 5 favorite books. I recommend it to everyone that I know.
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Summary: Outstanding
Review: A solid look at the positives and negatives of women's relationships with themselves and each other.
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Summary: Another side of the Bibel story
Review: It is said that the story told in The Red Tent is like it would have been if the Bible were written by women.
The main character in the book is Dinah. She is the daughter of Jacob and the sister of his 12 sons from the book of Genesis. We only get a tiny little hint on Dinah in the Bibel story, here in the book we meet first a little girl, deeply loved and spoiled by her mothers, the four wives of Jacob, later she is growing up to be a strong woman, living in a remarkable period of early history.
The Red Tent tells a story of bounds between women, strong women in a society where the most important is to be a man, a strong man. Anita Diamant tells us a story it is easy to believe in. It could all have happend this way. Her pen make this period of history glow, the storytelling is so rich and the people come alive even in our world of 2001.
Thank you Anita Diamant for giving me this story, reading the first books in the Bibel will never be the same for me after this. You have helped me to start using my imagination to read the story behind the story.
Britt Arnhild Lindland
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