I loved this book. It was so interesting to read about and imagine the cultures Anita wrote about. I loved the circle of women and the support they provided for each other. There was a lot of drama woven in and it was really interesting. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because I think it could've been edited better - it meandered in parts. But still a great read.

DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE. I happened upon while staying at a hotel and was mortified with how overly dramatic it was written and acted. Some of the actors of course were very good, but felt the script left out so much of the nuances. As in most movies made from books.

Great read!!!

For me, this is a book that is hard not to like. Last month, I and some friends here in Goodreads agreed to read the Bible for 12 months. Most of us are now on the seventh book, Judges and so far, my favorite is still Genesis. The reason is that there are just too many interesting events in it and so many unforgettable characters whose stories can be told and retold many times but we will not be tired hearing about them.

One of these stories is that of Isaac and Sara who have two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob steals the firstborn title from Esau with the help of Sara. Later Jacob meets Laban, the businessman. In Laban's place, there are 4 single women: Rachel, Leah, Zilpah and Bilhah. All of these become Jacob's wives giving him his 12 sons and only one daughter: Dinah. Her name is only mentioned ONCE in the Bible. Diamant took interest on her name and thought of all that could happen to her. She did not change anything in the backdrop story. She only extended and expanded what she thought could have been the untold story and she did it beautifully.

It is an easy read. Something that you can do while in a busy Starbucks outlet listening to rich kids discussing their term papers and school projects. I finished the bulk of this book the other night while waiting for my daughter from her band practice. This could have earned more stars from me had Diamant been more descriptive in her narration. I also felt that she put too much emphasis on her female characters. All the male characters were delineated with secondary roles which are all flat and unfeeling. This made the rampaging and horrendous mass murder committed by Simon and Levi in the palace too unbelievable to get any sympathy from me for Dinah. I thought that the life-long curse and her going back to the palace is too melodramatic that I felt like watching an corny movie hoping to get an Oscar nomination for an overacting aspiring actress.

Overall, I liked it. Not jumping up and down though.

A stunning saga that gives voice to one of histories most fascinating and mysterious women. Through lush and stirring prose, we see the ancient ways of womanhood, storytelling, love, and grief, and how the ties that bind us are more vital and lasting than we realize. We wonder along with Dinah: what does love truly mean? When does forgiveness become an option? At what price do we pursue pride and desire? Who is telling our stories? How do we begin to reveal the truth? Gorgeous, tragic, and graceful, the Red Tent is a tribute to the heart and soul, to dreams and desire, to truth.

I'll have to think about this...I may go back and add another star, depending on what stays with me. I think if I wasn't reading this book through a Latter-day Saint lens, I would have given it four stars, because the prose is absolutely gorgeous.
This is the story of Dinah, the sister of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Levi, Joseph, Benjamin, etc., etc. You know, the twelve sons of Jacob. It is written by Anita Diamant, and does a wonderful job of giving motivation to all the things that happen from the time Jacob meets Rachel through where Simeon (she calls him Simon) and Levi kill Dinah's husband.

She also does a beautiful, heart-tenderizing job of tying each of us as women to the concourse of womanhood from the beginning of time. My friend gave me this book for Christmas. As I read about the ties of womanhood, I realize what she was thinking of as she gave me this book, for she and I, and she and my mother, and I and her mother are all tied together by many of the red strings that Ms Diamant speaks of. The reason I had to put off reading it for five months is that I've been teaching a class in Old Testament, and since it's been about fifteen years since I've taught the class, or even studied the Old Testament, I've not had discretionary time to read. However, it was a wonderful segue into this book. The scenes in the King James Version are still fresh in my mind, and I was able to appreciate how she wove them in.

However, her treatment of Joseph has left a bad taste in my mouth. Though she has the tale come from an enemy of Joseph's, the word is that he bedded Potipher's wife, rather than the story we get in Genesis. In that and in other things she paints him as an opportunist and hints that he is gay.

But then, that is Dinah talking, and she never has forgiven her brothers. But, listen to one of her final paragraphs: Egypt loved the lotus because it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved. Thus can something as insignificant as a name--two syllables, one high, one sweet--summon up the innumerable smiles and tears, sighs and dreams of a human life.

Ah, what the heck. I'll give it four stars. That's what will stay with me.

I thought the first half of The Red Tent was very compelling. I liked the focus on the female relationships - a complex web of love, teamwork and jealousies - and enjoyed seeing the story behind the story we know. My favourite parts were near the beginning when we learn about Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah growing up and becoming Jacob's wives, and their subsequent forays into motherhood.

Unlike some readers, I had no problem with the female-centric feel to the novel. In fact, it seems like a funny and strange criticism when considering that this book sets out to offer a female perspective on a story that pretty much ignored women for centuries. I think The Red Tent might not work for you so much if you're reading as a fan of the biblical story and don't want to explore perspectives that change the way we view certain characters. As a nonreligious reader, though, I really enjoyed it.

Well, that is, until Dinah moves to Egypt and things became... mostly uninteresting. The truth is that, for me, Dinah's character paled in comparison to all the different and interesting personalities I found in the four sisters. I really like first-person narratives that focus on other characters - everything from Wuthering Heights to Tiger Lily - because it offers an up-close account whilst also viewing a number of characters equally. So I liked this book more when Dinah's narrative was not about her, but about her mothers.

The second half grew boring and tiring, and I honestly struggled to finish. It's a shame because I really loved the earlier chapters.

It was a real struggle to finish this one. I just couldn't get into this one at all. A major disappointment.

I found this a very good book, and enjoyed reading it.

I feel like I must have missed something with this one because it just didn’t grab me; whereas my girlfriends have all given it four and five stars. I found it to be a bit of a slog and it took me way too long to finish. If it wasn’t for book club, I likely would have abandoned it and moved on to something else. A 2-star review posted here on goodreads argues: " Too much description of the unimportant things, not enough of the ones that affect the story." I couldn't agree more.

I felt Dinah’s first-person narrative voice to be long-winded and like any Biblical story worth its weight, over-occupied with who begat who. The first half of the book dedicated to Dinah’s four mothers and her plethora of brothers reads too much like a Bible story for me and I know that’s supposed to be the whole point, but I found the method off-putting. The excruciating details about the Red Tent and the trials and tribulations of women during this time should have been riveting, but instead, all the dense descriptive passages remained... well... excruciating.

Finally Dinah comes of age and the narrative picks up. I thought, at last! Now we’re getting somewhere. Unfortunately, the infamous events surrounding the tragic circumstances of Dinah's betrayal happen in the blink of an eye. It’s shocking, yes, but all too brief and rushed. It didn’t give me time to feel dread, empathy or real pain.

Dinah’s hateful brothers Simon and Levi are so very evil yet I never got a sense of the motivation behind their violent rampage. What fueled their rage and psychosis? I also didn’t buy Jacob’s descent into such a spiteful and degenerate character. Where did that come from? He began his life as such a warm and generous man, successful and honorable. Why did he transform into such a brute later in life? Following the slaughter in Shechem, the fate of Dinah’s mothers is described in a few pages of summary and I thought they deserved more than this.

I found the rest of Dinah’s story as it unfolds in Egypt anti-climatic. Even when her son is sent away to school and becomes a stranger to her doesn’t come across with any great emotion. The fact that Dinah finds her way back to midwifery is not surprising, and that she should find love late in her life is sweet, but the big shocking reveal of crossing paths with Joseph I found to be unsatisfying. That his story should have been filled with such betrayal, shame and violence – that he should have survived his family after being sold into slavery – this should have bonded he and Dinah together, but they remain estranged, and Joseph turns out to be extremely dislikable – shallow, conceited, power hungry. That disappointed me.

The only place in the novel that moved me was the death scene of Dinah’s best friend Meryt. As for the rest of the novel, I remained – like Dinah’s narrative voice – largely emotionless and detached.

This is the second book I have read recently which is based on events which occured in the bible, and it is by far the better one. The story is so alive and flowing that I have finished the book within one day and it has stood in sharp contrast to the previous book I read, which was much longer, took much more time and effort to read and was a lot heavier.
The book tells the story of Dinah. A character hardly mentioned in the bible except for a few lines (after finishing the book, I fished out the bible and checked this out, although the author says so too). Her story is a short and violent one there.
The book was fantastic and when it ended I was left literally gasping and with tears in my eyes.
Recommended.

זה הספר השני שאני קוראת החודש שמבוסס על מאורעות תנכ"יים, ואני חייבת להודות שהוא הטוב מבין השניים, הרבה יותר טוב. הספר מגולל את סיפורה של דינה - אחותם של ראובן, שמעון, לוי, אפרים, יוסף וכהנה וכהנה. יש בספר דוגמאות מאוד מעניינות לעבודת האלילים שהייתה בא"י לפני המעבר למונותיאיזם, וגם מבט מרענן על האבות הראשונים (אברהם, יצחק ויעקב). הדמויות כ"כ חיות והסיפור כה זורם שסיימתי את הספר בתוך יום. זה היה ניגוד חי ונהדר לספר הקודם, שהיה חי גם הוא, אך כבד יותר. את הספר סיימתי עם דמעות בעיניים ובשוק.
אהבתי נורא!

In Hebrew literature, there is a form called Midrash which in essence is an exegesis on Hebrew texts. Even though I'm not Jewish, I would personally categorize this book as Midrash.

Why? Because Anita Diamant does not stray from the Jacob/Dinah story in the bible one whit. Many people who read this book and then go back to the biblical texts are surprised to find that there are household gods and concubines and that Jacob used some rather superstitious means to breed spotted goats, that Rachel claimed having her period to hide the gods hidden in the sacks from her father Laban and that Dinah must have been of some importance because she is one of the few women who gets mentioned more than a few verses worth in the Pentateuch.

Diamant uses her vast knowledge of the history of her faith and that time to flesh this story out in very real ways never perverting the original text. And in doing so she weaves a story of women and their bond with each other in a time and a place that is difficult to understand in our modern world but at the same time is fascinating. These characters linger with you long after the book is finished.

oh the way ancient women suffered. a beautiful biblical retelling focused on the atrocities of men, the old gods, midwifery, and the agony of misogyny.