I didn't like this book. I started it years ago, and got partly through it, but put it down and didn't get back to it for years later. That alone should say a lot.
the book tries to creatively retell the story of Jacob and his family from the Bible. the author for the most part sticks with the basics from the Bible narrative, but builds on top of it a bold, earthy, imaginative story. I give her credit for making a living, breathing story out of a story that could become inhumane through its familiarity.
However, I don't think that the story is enjoyable. there's a dark dirtiness to the book's mood, some sense that the world, especially the men in it, is bad and out to get the women. Maybe the ending improves on that. I gave up before I was 3/4 through the book. I just didn't enjoy it enough to make finishing it, even after picking it up after all this time, enjoyable. I'd rather stick with the story the way the Bible tells it, and leave the sex and pagan religion details in Diamont's own imagination.

LOVED this story! Based on the points of view of the biblical wives and daughter of Jacob; typically unheard of in medieval and ancient history.

n  Are you ready to go into the Red Tent?n


n  JACOB’S DINASTY: THE REALITY SHOWn

n  We have been lost to each other for so long. My name means nothing to you. My memory is dust. This is not your fault, or mine. The chain connecting mother to daughter was broken and the word passed to the keeping of men, who had no way of knowing.n

Disfunctional family falls short to describe Jacob’s household.

Nowadays, it would be easily a high-rating TV reality show!

Jacob, a weak man put into the stressing place of being a patriarch of his race, manipulated by his scheming mother and later by his insidious sons.

Leah, mostly a good woman BUT willingly played her role in a mean scheme to marry her sister’s boyfriend.

Zilpah and Bilhah, with a image of “not killing a fly” but they make surgical comments with the sharp edge of a knife, whenever they can.

Simeon and Levi, a couple of homicidal psychos, which they don’t hesitate to kill every single man in a settlement when those men were even unable to defend themselves or even selling one of their own brothers to slave traders.

Rebekah, a mother who doesn’t hesitate to favor a son of hers over the other or throwing out a granddaughter from her tribe.

Good thing that God already did a flood to rid of all the bad people! Geez!


n  THE FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME FOR DINAHn

n  If you want to understand any woman you must first ask about her mother and then listen carefully. Stories about food show a strong connection. Wistful silences demonstrate unfinished business. The more a daughter knows about the details of her mother's life - without flinching or whining - the stronger the daughter.n

It’s odd that in many descriptions about the book, The Red Tent, it’s mentioned that one of the intentions is to denote a different scenario for the “rape” of Dinah, and while obviously I am not a Bible Scholar, one thing that I did was to read what my Bible says about the brief mention of Dinah on it. And as I understood, indeed Dinah was a fleeting line in the middle of the huge recollection of stories in the Bible, but it was clear (at least to me) that she wasn’t raped, and clearly her brothers were a bunch of psychos (with the exception of Joseph, of course).

Besides, Dinah's brothers were clearly psychos but also men of short vision, since if they were so greedy, they could take the "rape" of Dinah into their own economical benefit, and therefore, instead of asking a massive circumcision, they could ask for better lands, with water's supply and a real potential to farm and to pasture, so they could gain something tangible out of their "ruined honor".

What they gained killing every single man in that fortress? Nothing!

Psychos and stupid! Very bad combination!

Clearly, there are several versions of the Bible and all of them are subject to translations and interpretations. My bible is the MacArthur Study Bible, basically since I wanted to have a bible with footnotes and additional info to give a deeper understanding about what’s shown in the Bible.

So, I don’t discard the scenario that my Bible’s version isn’t as many others. But taking is account that the Bible (any version) has been subjected to editions, censorships, exclusions, translations, etc... so who can say what really happened?

It’s amazing the vision of Anita Diamant, the author, of choosing Dinah, an ephemera, easy-to-forget Biblical character and to develop such rich and complex story around her, to expand her original Bible’s fifteen minutes of fame to her deserved epic legend about her.

Because it’s really unfair to see how the twelve male offspring of Jacob became nothing less than THE patriarchs of the Twelve Tribes of Israel...

...and Dinah? Oh, just the daughter who was raped, having barely a paragraph and disappears from Bible’s records.

When you think about Dinah’s role in the middle of Jacob’s direct offspring, it’s clearly odd that the Bible didn’t give her a better position, since she was the only girl between several boys, it was obvious that if God would think in somebody as special in that generation, it has to be Dinah and not the boys.

But again, it’s no shock that the Bible (or rather the people who manipulated it) gives importance (in the most cases) to men’s stories only and if a woman was ever mentioned, she must be guilty of something and/or playing a discreditable line of work.

It’s amazing that nowadays there are still women in the Catholic’s faith (and to be clear, I am in this religion, but I am open minded and I like to question stuff) since it’s unfair that a woman who goes into the service of God, her highest chance to climb in Catholic Church’s chain of command is to be a Mother Superior, that it’s barely one upper step from being a Nun, BUT a man? Pftt! He can be potentially the Pope!

Certainly one of the best things of Anita Diamant’s approach to Dinah’s story is that while she is clearly a likeable character, she isn’t perfect, with or without justifications, she has a dark side in her soul... but don’t we all? And the story isn’t a blind feminist propaganda or a men-hating pamphlet, since if you are objective in your reading experience, you will find in the book, as many sins made by women as by men, but also great women as great men... as in real life.

And at last...

...Dinah won’t be a forgotten Biblical paragraph anymore!

Now, not only women but also men will be able to get inside of the Red Tent, to learn Dinah’s story, to keep her legacy, to celebrate her life, and to share it with others.

"هناك بعض الكتب تجعلك عاجزًا عن الكلام بطريقة ما، ولا يمكنك ببساطة كتابة مراجعة عن تلك الكتب الرائعة". هذا ما شعرت به بمجرد أن انتهيت من قراءة هذه الرواية.
من أفضل الروايات التي قرأتها!

I had to read "The Red Tent" for a book club I was in a few years ago. I agree with an earlier post that decribes it as chick-lit masquerading as historical fiction. It also seemed to be two different books - one set in the desert with Jacob, biblical super-stud, and his wives; and the other one set in ancient Egypt. There were all sorts of things that irritated me about this book, including:

1. Descriptions like how everyone loves Rachel because she smells like water. What kind of water - pond water? Dishwater? Bilgewater - like this book?
2. The ritual stuff with the onset of menstruation - perhaps my memory is playing tricks with me, but I seem to recall a weird segment that sounded like some Tantric-drumming-circle workshop in the mountains that a co-worker described to me years ago, which included a dildo carved out of stone (the bit in the book, not the drumming circle the co-worker attended). If this segment was historically accurate, well then all I can say is: "Them was the bad ol' days."
3. The episiotomy scene.
4. The latter portion of the book, where the main character (Dinah?) has gone to Egypt, gets a job working for the Pharoah, gives her baby to him and his wife to raise as their own - then all of a sudden we gallop forward and her kid is grown up and she's only vaguely regretful that he never knew she was his mother then marries some Egyptian dude and is the local midwife, using all that great knowledge gained in the red tent - the rest was so boring and unmemorable that I confess I have indeed forgotten it.

Overall, this book felt a bit like "Daughter of Fortune", set in some historial period where the women suffer, suffer, and suffer some more until the end, when tempered by their miserable experiences, they live happily ever after delivering babies or healing people with Chinese medicine.

I picked up The Red Tent because it was recommended as a better alternative to Michal: Wives of King David #1 (Jill Eileen Smith), a book I disliked because of the Biblical inaccuracies. I wish I had read actual reviews of The Red Tent instead of listening to the recommendations.
My thoughts - I only read the first 35 pages. That was all it took to realize I didn't want to finish this book.

Sexuality - This book deserves at least a PG-13 rating, if not R. The descriptions of the marital act were not necessary, nor were the references to "self pleasure" or bestiality. Even if it was accurate (which there is no evidence that it is), it was unnecessary to the plot and character development.

Biblical accuracy - There was a lot of inaccuracy in just the first 30 pages. I'm not sure of the religious practices of the time as observed in Laban's home. It's quite possible they worshiped many gods, as the Israelites had longstanding issues with being unable to maintain monotheism. But the basic facts of the story were changed, such as (1) how long Jacob worked for each of his wives. The Biblical story is very clear; Jacob “served seven years to get Rachel” and another seven years after being tricked, rather than the 7 months described in this book. (2) The story says Rachel and Leah tricked Jacob at the first wedding when it was actually Laban who orchestrated the events. (3) According to the story, Jacob didn't accuse Laban of cheating him until after the bridal week was completed. The Bible says that Jacob accused Laban the day after the wedding and Laban instructed Jacob to go ahead and finish the bridal week before he would give Rachel to Jacob.

If so many of the basic facts are changed, why bother writing a story "based" on the Biblical story? Why not write an original one?

A vivid tale narrated in biblical style through the eyes of Jacob’s only daughter Dinah, a lesser known name in the great Book.

The narrative covers the life-span of Jacob, from his multiple marriages to his death, a side trip to Egypt covering Dinah’s life after she officially leaves the book of Genesis, and finally footnotes with Dinah’s passing. The author uses the Red Tent as the listening post where all these family stories, some predating Dinah herself, are narrated to her via her four mothers (Jacob’s four wives) when they gather for three days to menstruate together around the dawning of each full moon. This “synchronicity” of bodily functions to the movement of the moon does not get much mention in our 24/7 culture today. And the men, shepherds, as was Jacob’s occupation, are portrayed as masturbators and fornicators of any available woman (or sheep), hard negotiators for wives and dowry, and bloodthirsty barbarians who will slaughter their fellow men, even while the latter are recovering from the painful procedure of circumcision. But as all this is written in the Book of Genesis, one can’t fault the author for bringing these events vividly to light.

The lot of women in this time is to get married as soon as possible and have babies, and more babies, given the high rates of infant mortality, and to be subservient to their men at all times. The alternative is to become a midwife or a dancing girl, or a slave whose master may require sexual services, which could end up in the siring of more (second-class) children. There are multiple scenes of childbirth—a bit excessive I thought—good ones, bad ones and ugly ones. And the customs of the period are interesting too: human ashes in a mourner’s hair to honor the dead, a virgin’s first menstrual blood sprinkled on the earth as a libation for the crops, the mother naming her children, and bonded employees following their migratory masters.

Given the multiplying of Jacob’s family and Dinah’s extended family in Egypt, many of the names in this narrative remain that – just names. Some however, emerge as fully rounded characters: the beautiful and tempestuous Rachel, her son Joseph the dreamer, Jacob the wily patriarch, Leah the most fertile of Jake’s wives, the lecherous Laban, and Dinah the midwife - these characters lift themselves off the pages amidst a secondary cast of cardboard cut outs.

The severing of family ties that follows her husband's death is poignantly brought out as Dinah curses her Jewish family and moves to Egypt, pregnant with the only child she will have. Despite her return years later as an anonymous handmaid, she prefers to remain a myth, a story told around future gatherers inside the Red Tent. Her milk-brother Joseph too, now an Egyptian nobleman, remains estranged from Dinah. And as for those murderous brothers of hers, Simon and Levi, they fail to lift themselves from the page as fleshed out characters after being responsible for the pivotal event around which this novel revolves.

Not everyone is reconciled, raising this book above the “and all end’s happily ever after” type. Death to Dinah is a passing from one world to the next, a re-uniting with her dead mothers whom she loved dearly, and a continuing of the journey towards perfection, something that seems to have been lost in many of the Judeo-Christian religions, in which a virtuous life on earth is claimed as the single shot at gaining Paradise, whatever that is.

An interesting read.

I struggled to get into this, but once I did (when Dinah's adult life began) it was much better and easily held my attention.

This is a historical fiction that takes place in biblical times. I don't think I've ever read anything like this before. Some parts were fascinating. Some were just odd. The story of Dinah was one I probably will not forget.

Overall, I'm glad to have read this book. I liked it but didn't love it. I would give 2 stars for the first half and 4 stars for the second half, so I will settle on 3 stars.

If you like historical fiction, give this a try.

My apologies to Anita Diamant. This book is good, in the sense that she takes an interesting concept (a bit of the bible) and expounds upon it. And, in all fairness, she wrote well. Alas, this was just NOT my cup of tea. No sir.

Here I'd like to throw in a disclaimer that I am not one who finds the Bible holy. If I were and then I read this book, I'm thinking I may have been offended. So, be warned if you think you are getting biblical fiction that is... unoffensive? All I can say about this is there's a whole lot of sheep humping and Jacob jerking off early on in the book. Then again, there's bestiality in the bible... so, whatever. Be warned.

Why didn't this book float my boat? For the same reasons it made me VERY VERY thankful I live in modern times.

1. The red tent - refers to a place the woman all go when ill, giving birth or menstruating. Dear GOD. I can think of nothing worse than having to spends DAYS in a tent with a bunch of ill, birthing and/or hormonal women. (Yes, I went there. That's one of my problems with women - those hormone surges can be MAD unpleasant.)

2. Birth - Thank heavens for medical care! Now, I have nothing at all against midwives, in fact, I think women who labor and give birth at home (as long as they are healthy enough to do so) are kick ass. Honestly, all the birth without epidurals and such... women are tough. That being said, I would have perished along with my son in the red tent. So, thank you medicine for epidurals, c-sections that a mom can survive, and for great neonatal care. Woot.

3. Call me old fashioned, a prude, whatever, but I dig this thing called monogamy. I enjoy not having to share my husband. I can't even fathom "sharing" him with my sisters (of course, I have no sisters, but still!!! NO FREAKING WAY!)

4. I also dig that I don't have to have "relations"* with family. I have no brothers, either, and while my cousins are all very nice people, I don't want to "know"* them like that. EVER.

5.uh.


*"relations" and "know" tweak me when describing sex. as does calling a penis or vagina his or her sex. I don't know why, but it does. They were used appropriately in this book, because some of the alternatives just wouldn't fit and honestly, are not much better.

What an adventure story this is and I basked in the warmth of the main character Dinah. Vibrant and life affirming, I will not forget this book any time soon.

Review to follow

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant

The Red Tent is a novel by Anita Diamant, published in 1997 by Wyatt Books for St. Martin's Press. It is a first-person narrative that tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph.

She is a minor character in the Bible, but the author has broadened her story. The book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law, take refuge while menstruating or giving birth, and in which they find mutual support and encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts.

It begins with the story of her mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز ششم ماه سپتامبر سال1999میلادی

عنوان: چادر قرمز؛ نویسنده: آنیتا دیامنت؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

این رمان داستان گیرای «دینا»- دختر «لی» و «حضرت یعقوب» و خواهر «جوزف (حضرت یوسف)» را به تصویر میکشد؛ کتاب با اشاراتی که به کتاب پیدایش (نخستین بخش انجیل عهد عتیق) دارد، درباره ی زندگی زنان عهد عتیق است؛ «چادر قرمز» داستان مادران، دختران، قابلگی، عشق و زندگی در سرزمین بیگانه را، بازگو میکند؛ داستان «دینه (دینا)»، تنها دختر «حضرت یعقوب»، از همسر نخست ایشان «لئه (لئا)» است؛ نویسنده میگویند: رمان «چادر قرمز» در مورد شخصیتهای مقدسی همچون «راشل و لیا» است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 17/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 14/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی