Rating: 
Summary: Great book!
Review: Our book club of seven young women just loved this book! We loved the sisterly, motherly, femaleness of the story, and the female-bonding that took place each month in the Red Tent. Some realized that we have no similar "rights of passage" for our young girls. Others are getting interested in the Bible for the first time in their lives. It's cool. We eat really great food too!
Rating:
Summary: A book destined to challenge each reader.
Review: I'm not surprised to find such contradictory reviews of this wonderful novel. There's no such thing as tabula rosa readers when it comes to this book. Each reader inevitably comes to the story with their own religious beliefs and education. This is the dilemma: do you consider Anita Diamant's story to be a pure work of fiction inspired by a brief portion of Genesis or do you consider it to be an attempt to flesh-out that story? Putting my own prejudices up front, I pretty much considered this to be a pure work of historical fiction - an imaginative story well grounded in historical research. From this point of view, I consider the book to be a huge success. Not only is it a compelling story, but it is also beautifully written. The author gives us a rich and fascinating glimpse at her interpretation of two ancient cultures. Given that much of the historical record (biblical or otherwise) does not elaborate upon the private lives of women and families, no one should be surprised that Diamant has created/altered/expanded upon these subjects. I think she did an excellent job of creating and contrasting a unique society where women had their own rights and powers and the more traditionally accepted assumption that women were frequently powerless and vulnerable in early patriarcal society. Whatever your own personal views, you are sure to find this a compelling and thought provoking read.
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Summary: I loved this book!
Review: I have been waiting for the library to call me when this book came in. Finally I got the call and have been unable to put it down. I was a little uncomfortable with the topic because it was biblically based, and there were some liberties taken. But it was such a good read!!! I do have to remind myself that it is really a work of fiction - a fine work of fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and creative storytelling
Review: Diamant paints an almost surreal landscape of the ancient civilization within which Dinah resides. She did an excellent job making the reader comfortable with a culture that is ancient and foreign. I was even privy to the mysteries and secrets of life within the red tent, the place where women go during that time of the month, and also the place where life begins. Birthing, blood, breastfeeding, and gossip fill the pages, but this male reader enjoyed the storytelling regardless. It is clever the way in which Diamant uses the Genesis narratives as a springboard for Dinah's story. At points her perspective comes off as being entirely different, even contrary, to the traditional interpretation. This will infuriate some strict fundamentalist Christians (but some of these supposedly angered individuals will secretly continue reading the book to the very end regardless). Jewish readers probably won't get as easily offended, because they are familiar with midrash, storytelling based upon familiar narratives, which is precisely what this is. A note for the more sensitive reader: Keep in mind that this is a work of fiction. Even I was a bit irritated that the women didn't take their husband's god (El) a bit more seriously than their household gods. However, she did do an excellent job in portraying a confusing world in which superstition and silly pagan practices were much more widespread than most people would think. I enjoyed this book as much as I did Orson Scott Card's book, Sarah, and Joseph Heller's book about David (I think it's called Dear God). Another creative re-presentation of various parts of Genesis can also be found in my book A NEW BEGINNING by Eric Westra.
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Summary: Read this as fiction
Review: This is such an excellent book...you really feel like you know the characters and it is a very interesting read all the way through. Other readers seem to have problems with the fact that the stories vary so much from the Bible. If you want to read the Bible, by all means do so. But if you want to read about what life may have been like for women of this time, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Page-Turner!
Review: I was kind of turned off on the concept of the book before I actually started reading it. I thought being a biblical fictionalized story it might be preachy and force the author's values onto the reader. Boy was I wrong. This is a class-A, top notch story told with such deep character development that it was so easy to picture what life was like in the Genesis-times and to picture each of the many characters. I laughed, I cried, I got angry...this book takes you through so many wonderful powerful emotions. I could not put this book down and I am so glad that I read it. We read it in our book club and it was unanimous that it is an excellent novel. I highly recommend it for every female out there who likes to read. You will not be disappointed in the slightest.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent tale told using very little information.
Review: Diamant spins an excellent tale using very little information. Though her father and brothers are given enormous credit and favor within the Jewish nation... Dinah, like many women was glossed over. The only downside is was difficulty rendering what is fact and what was author created fiction without refering back repeatably to Genesis.
Rating: 
Summary: disgusted
Review: I agree with Caralen! This book was so infuriating and disgusting!!! Rather than fill in the Biblical story with a woman's perspective, the author chose to twist the story around to suit her feminist fantasies. She turned Laban into a vicious monster who had sex with sheep and beat women. She suggested that Rachel, instead of hiding Laban's idols under her saddle, menstruated all over them. Every other word in the first part of the book was "blood." We read this book for my reading group, and in order to refute all the inaccuracies, I printed the Biblical account for us to read during our review. The Bible has such richly human characters, and the stories are extremely compelling. There's no reason to slander their lives in a fictitious account. Ms. Diamant should be ashamed of herself.
Rating:
Summary: The Red Tent
Review: I also found this book disappointing. From a christian viewpoint it is disappointing and also inacccurate. It is earthy and vulgar and filled with descriptions that belong with private matters. I had hoped for something that reflected the daily lives of Bible women of the time period and I can't believe that all they did was this most of the time.
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Summary: The Bible as literature!
Review: I could not put this book down! I found myself reading it in the middle of the day - completely neglecting my children, husband, and dog! Despite some of the innaccuracies I found it to be a compelling novel that pulled you into a different time and place, the same way Memoirs of a Geisha did.
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