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| The Red Tent: A Novel | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 1438 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1579
Category: Book
Author: Anita Diamant
Publisher: Picador
Studio: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Label: Picador
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0312427298
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312427290
ASIN: 0312427298
Publication Date: August 21, 2007
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A New York Times Bestseller
A decade after the publication of this hugely popular international bestseller, Picador releases the tenth anniversary edition of The Red Tent.
Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that tell of her father, Jacob, and his twelve sons.
Told in Dinah's voice, Anita Diamant imagines the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of the mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through childhood, 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.
Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's lives.
Amazon.com Review
The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycles of birthing, menses, and even illness. Like the conversations and mysteries held within this feminine tent, this sweeping piece of fiction offers an insider's look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter, Dinah. Told in the voice of Jacob's daughter Dinah (who only received a glimpse of recognition in the Book of Genesis), we are privy to the fascinating feminine characters who bled within the red tent. In a confiding and poetic voice, Dinah whispers stories of her four mothers, Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah--all wives to Jacob, and each one embodying unique feminine traits. As she reveals these sensual and emotionally charged stories we learn of birthing miracles, slaves, artisans, household gods, and sisterhood secrets. Eventually Dinah delves into her own saga of betrayals, grief, and a call to midwifery. "Like any sisters who live together and share a husband, my mother and aunties spun a sticky web of loyalties and grudges," Anita Diamant writes in the voice of Dinah. "They traded secrets like bracelets, and these were handed down to me the only surviving girl. They told me things I was too young to hear. They held my face between their hands and made me swear to remember." Remembering women's earthy stories and passionate history is indeed the theme of this magnificent book. In fact, it's been said that The Red Tent is what the Bible might have been had it been written by God's daughters, instead of her sons. --Gail Hudson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1433 more reviews...
 Bible stories from a woman's eye November 23, 2008
Stories of women in the Bible are few and far between. When they are included, they are often temptresses, harlots, or victims. Occassionally they are heroes. Because of the time and influences of authors and editors, their stories are limited and culled. Anita Diamant examines the life of one of these women, Dinah. In Genesis 34, the story of her rape and the revenge enacted by two of her brothers (of the 12 sons of Israel) is presented, but nothing is ever written about her again. Diamant tells her tale from Dinah's point of view. She begins by telling the stories of the wives of Jacob, which to her are as important as the life of Dinah.
Diamant shows her love of Biblical history and scholarship by presenting the smallest details and showing their importance. She embraces the tone of a woman of the time. She takes every scrap of mention of the women in Jacob's life and weaves a beautiful and compelling tale. She creates characters with spirits. You'd swear they were women you could meet soon, women you could admire and learn from. While reading many Bible stories, I've often be confused by the motives of the characters and wanted to know why they acted a certain way. I knew why the women in the book did everything they did. I still don't understand why the men acted the way they did.
This is a very female story. The title of the book should make that obvious-it's named for the isolation of women during their periods. Every day life is important-cooking, cleaning, weaving, child-rearing. Some of the best writing she does is when she describes childbirth. I rarely get weepy when reading, but I did choke up when Dinah describes the need for a special song or prayer for a mother when she first looks upon her newborn. She also describes the distance women in this time had from Jacob's god and reminds the reader that when this story was written, the world was still polytheistic, ruled by many gods, of which, the god of Abraham was one.
I've read about midrashes, stories that rabbi's wrote to explain the actions of the characters in the Bible or because there seems to be a gap. The story of Lilith as the first wife of Adam is one of these, if memory serves me correctly. I think that Diamant wrote this in that tradition. I commend her efforts and wish that other novels taking on the lives of women of the Bible were so well-written and concieved. This is an interesting one to read with The Handmaid's Tale (Everyman's Library).
Literary Bread and Water- Will Make You Feel Alive November 11, 2008
This book is the best book I've read in a long time. It is literary bread and water: fleshy with life, sustaining and fulfilling, yet clean and unadorned and quenching. It is the story of the life of Woman, told through the life of one woman. At times we see through the eyes of a girl-child, observing so many new details with a slow hand, and this first part of the book is luxurious and comfortable. Then you are suddenly a woman speeding through painful, empty years, and then finally savoring the last slow memories of the sweet years before death. Dinah, the woman, is a character mentioned in the Bible, though in that text her story is short and black and white. This telling is anything but. A multitude of characters with unfamiliar names is handled with grace and genius, even after asking myself "Why can I tell all of these strange people apart and remember exactly who they are even after they haven't been mentioned for whole chapters? It is an untraceable brilliance--I felt like I knew and could see four mothers, twelve brothers, countless acquaintances, two lovers, children, and every supernumerary character with only one line of description concerning them dropped here or there. Nothing that I have read has captured the entire human experience in such touching and vivid terms as The Red Tent. It is definitely one of those books that you can't finish in public- you have to save those last five pages for your empty bedroom and a box of tissues, for nothing has ever made me feel so alive.
A must read. November 10, 2008
Even as a Christian and considering the liberty she takes with biblical characters, I believe this is a book to be read by all women. So beautiful.
The Red Tent November 6, 2008
The Red Tent is one of the best books I have ever read! It was plausible, and it taught me a lot about the women of this period. I think every woman should read it. I enjoyed it so much, I bought my step-daughter a copy so she could read it. Everyone I know who has read the book has loved it! Anita Diamant shows an incredible talent for story telling in this book. I look forward to reading more of her books.
wonderfully engrossing November 4, 2008
I would reread this book without hesitation!
the descriptions so vivid...
the story telling is supreme. the author really uses the english language to her advantage.
One can sympathize with the main character Dinah. Sometimes I wish women still had a red tent to congregate in... sigh
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