Okay, I really struggled through this book. I loved reading from the perspective of a woman in the Old Testament. That part was great. I have been told many-a-time that I am an individual who CHOOSES to be naive and for that reason, I didn't like the way the author portrayed some of the characters--some of my heroes--from the OT. There were just some disturbing things in there--like Jacob masturbating--(there is worse than that in the book, believe me) that I thought were AWFUL. In the end, Joseph is portrayed as a selfish, illiterate tyrant who hated his younger brother Benjamin and who willingly slept with Potipher's wife. Terrible! So for the most part, I just didn't like it. I did manage to read the whole thing, and enjoyed reading about Dinah making the most of her life and incorporating things she learned from her mothers. I loved getting to know Zilpah and Bilhah better..but that's where it ended. If you are at all familiar with the OT, don't read this book!

After seeing a few positive reviews of this book, I chose to read it to give myself a break as I struggled to get through a much larger book. I was mesmerized from the prologue through to the epilogue-- and without being overly sentimental, overly dramatic or overly detailed, the book drew tears more than once.

Using a few lines from the Bible as framework, the author breathes life into the oft-told, well-known story of Jacob, his wives, Joseph, his brothers and most importantly, Dinah.

Without delving into the specific religious angle, the author does a lovely job of taking the reader into the Holy Land in the early Old Testament times... through the eyes of the women-- not the men. It was interesting to learn about the customs of such an early time. And I fell in love with some of the supporting cast of characters as well-- especially the mother-aunties.

If you want a story that will stay with you, choose The Red Tent.

(Reviewed 1/20/09)

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.

this isn't typically my type of book, but i read it for a discussion group.

i wish more of the book had been like the last third, which was where the meat of the story lied for me. i really could've done without the first quarter which was her mother and her sister wives sharing a husband and so much childbirth lol.

I am not a Bible fanatic (as a reader), I mean I don't read much bout the bible even though I have a dozen of different translation of the Bible in my dormitory. I loved to collect different bible from the smallest to the heaviest encyclopedia-like Bible, I must be a theologically insane when you saw my family's collection of rosary, bible and statues but I never finished a Bible in my entire life.

When I entered college I have this theologian professor who knows a lot about the Bible, even I ask him questions that are unnecessary he is still willing to answer like as if he-knows-everything. I must accept the fact that I am his greatest enemy but I don't hate him because he taught me a lot of interesting things about the holy scripture. Thanks to my Goodreads' friends I have the chance to read this book.

From the Genesis to the Revelation, only limited female characters were mentioned in the bible, if ever they were mentioned they only have short appearance in verses and they are the mystery. The Red Tent is the story of the lost daughter of the prophet Jacob, who suffered because of her willingness to love a wrong man.

Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, a woman who had given the chance to be loved by her mother and stepmothers and taught her all they knew to become a better woman in the future. As the only daughter of Jacob's clan, she only had the chance to experience the life of a woman in a Red Tent, a place were only women can enter, a place were women bleed, a place to give birth, friendship among women and a place were every secrets of women should be kept and shared.

The books was divided into three parts, which are the early years of Dinah - which tackles the lives of her mothers, her childhood years and lastly her travel to Egypt. The book turns out to be a story of Leah, Rachel, Bilhal, Zilpah and Dinah who suffered and loved by Jacob.

Leah, the true mother of Dinah, a skillful wife who inherit the gift of being a mother to her sons and daughter. Zilpah, Leah's closest sister and a religious woman who dreamed to become a priestess of the moon and to the virgin. Rachel, a beautiful woman, a midwife and truly been loved by Jacob. Bilhal, the smallest among the sisters and the closest of Rachel who inherit her beauty and talents of Leah and a quiet shepherd.

As we all know or maybe few that Dinah was raped by an Egyptian in the bible and further that nobody knows what really happened to her. For me it wasn't a rape if she is willing to be touched by a man. She loved him and he loves her, but her brother tricked her husband's family by circumcising all the men in the household and killed them. That was a frightening event that Dinah suffered in the story even in the last will of Jacob he never mentioned Dinah but in fact she is a secret that must not speak in there family.

The book also shown a strong feminism, it aimed social rights to the woman. It is also weird that the author included gods and goddesses and practicing paganism in the book, and she is a Jew and the story are gathered from the sacred scripture of Christians. But we can't deny that in the old times people especially women were priestess of sacred image of the people, they become the prophet or a priestess who given the chance to see the future and foretell other's fortune. Warning, the book had a strong paganism or religion on it and I think if you are an obsessed Christian you may find this awful and sinful.

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Painting of Dinah, depiction of the rape. Painted in late 17th century. - Wikipedia - I may say she had the loneliest soul among women in the bible, the mass murder and the lost of her only joy. One of the most frightening and highly anticipated scene in the book, sweet, I was hooked while reading that part. I loved her as a book character, a woman with a strong heart.

Rating - The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, 4 Sweets and the tragic life of women in the bible. (Some may find this boring for me this book encourage me to read more books that are fictitiously written and gathered to the Bible. In the end she gathered her love and peace to forgive all the sins and mistakes that his father and his brother's bad deeds. Dinah's story will be always in my heart. Grabbed from K.D. of Goodreads - Filipinos and his Starbuck's receipt.)

Challenges:
Book #19 for 2011
Book #12 for Off the Shelf!

n  n

i can't remember the last time a book made me cry. (Midrash, gotta love it) ;-)

the only people i have ever met, who actually believed Dinah was "raped" (as recorded in the Bible) have been men...

granted, that might say something about the circles i tend to move in (hasidic) and our propensity for personal interpretation of the scriptures (to an embarrassing degree, at times) but any woman, rebbetzin/wife/mother/sister/otherwise, which i have discussed this story with (speaking of the scripture) mirrored my smirk right back at me, and said the same as i did "i bet she fell in love.. i bet she wasn't raped at all"....

the conversation quickly turning to "women as possessions of men", "unmarried women's bodies belonging to fathers", and of course: sex with a virgin, equals rape.....

men being the ones who were working as scribes through the years, and "Word of G-d" or not, it wasn't HaShem who was dotting every yod and crossing every dalet for the past 2 thousand years, so who even knows what really *did* happen to Dinah, seeing as *all* of her story (except the small, horrible, little blurb) had been left out of sight for so long.... and what she might actually say for herself today, if she were here to ask... well, read the book.

This is one of my favorite books. I love the community of women in this book. In this society, women came together in the red tent during their periods. The older woman helped to care for the younger woman and support them. The husbands had to care for the house and children while a woman was in the red tent and the woman focused on their dreams and each other.

This is set during the time of the bible and if my memory serves, this woman is the sister to Joseph, who ends up in Egypt.

I like the support that women had in this story and I dream of somehow setting up something like this in modern times for women to recharge their batteries somehow in our fast paced world. The realities of childbirth are also shown in this story. It's a wonderful book.

I don't know what men think of the book, but I know many women how have loved this story and characters. I wanted to write up a review for it and now I have. It has to be in my top 20 books.

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.

Since book club is over, I'll review this book. The Red Tent is one of my favorite books. Two things I would recommend for anyone considering reading this book: 1) don’t read up on the bible story until after finishing the novel; 2) If you know the bible story well, read this novel as that, just a novel of fiction relating nothing to the bible story. I have spoilers in this review, so continue reading with caution! I didn’t give it five stars because it’s a little too controversial and I was disappointed with the ending of Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, & Bilhah’s characters, but everything else I absolutely absorbed and loved. The characters in the book were so well developed and loved. I loved the relationship between Dinah and her first husband; her relationship with her second husband was wonderful too. I loved the relationship of the women/mothers of Dinah. I enjoyed seeing their individual talents displayed and accented. The midwife chapters in this book were gripping for me and brought a heroic aspect to the women’s characters. The reintroduction of the slave known as Rebecca’s favorite slave (can’t remember her name) was so powerful for me. I loved that part. There was so much to enjoy in this book.

Why I stopped reading: The prologue intrigued me. The author's voice is compelling. But the characters are problematic. Everyone is one-track and that track is sex. For the women, it's about the mystical power of childbirth. For the men, it's about lust. The author didn't bother with any layers of humanity beyond this one. There's also a forced permeation of paganism and little inclusion (that I read; granted I did not finish) of the God of Israel, which doesn't make sense if one considers the book of Genesis to be even slightly historically accurate in its depiction of Jewish faith. I was hoping to get an alternate, fictionalized perspective on the Old Testament. This is an alternate reality.

The best way to write strong, true women is to show them holding their own alongside strong, true men. To show a give-and-take between them of supporting and leaning, strengths and flaws. This book instead paints all the men as weak, fearful, faithless, lust-driven ... on the whole, pathetic. A disservice to both the female and male characters, and not worth it for me.

While the term biblical fiction may be applicable to this particular book, it feels more like biblical non-fiction. The stories of Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, Bilhah, and Dinah are more real in this narrative than they ever were in my countless Sundays spent in Hebrew class. Though this book strikes a particular cord with me being a Jewish woman, this tale of the secret lives of women can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of religion. In this book, characters whose names have usually only been spoken in brief followed by “and so-and-so begat” come to life as three-dimensional and completely accessible people.

The real feat this book accomplishes, however, is not in its interpretation of the Old Testament stories, but rather in its ability to show that the basic, irrefutable truths of womanhood are not subject to culture or time. The ineffable qualities that make up all that is feminine are somehow described in this book, without cheapening them, and magically, without the prism of ancient history dragging them down into stereotype. Truly beautiful, a book that makes me feel connected to all womankind, and one of the few novels which I cry through, laugh through, and feel the first thrills of love through… no matter how many times I read it.

This book is very interesting. I have had it for quite a long time, and now that I am reading it, I wonder why I havent picked it up before.
I am pleased that I have not read many reviews of the book. I started reading with no expectation.... and I am loving it!

A magnificent book! Anita Diamant is a wonderful story teller.
This is a book about family.. and all its ups and downs. It is also a celebration of the strength of women.