Traditions, rituals and memories ignored by the Bible, find a voice in Dinah.

books:

	• The Red Tent: A Novel Anita Diamant Picador, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 1437 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Lives up to the praise

I'm not an enormous fan of fiction. The story must almost have a gravitational force to pull me in. The Kite Runner, Water for Elephant's, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Lovely Bones, I tried them all and ended up putting them aside as not enough. This book was amazing. I was so engaged.

Traditions, rituals and memories ignored by the Bible, find a voice in Dinah.

Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent" is a work where rituals and traditions speak of those silent biblical moments that have seemed to disappear through the lines of the important messages the Bible has voiced for. The book is live and full of detailed descriptions of relationships and characters. It progresses in a very natural way, just like its teller, Dinah, it grows with her, lives with her, ends with her.
The worlds in the book are complete, children, men, women, the society is a big family, their emotions, their daily lives, their festivities, everything has been arranged in a very detailed, smart, intuitive and captivating approach. Idolatry has as much force as true faith, love is as powerful as hate and death is but the obedient of both, life is empty when judgment befalls and full when forgiveness makes way to reconciliation.
Dinah is the honest guide, the voice behind the untold story of ordinary men and women chosen by a mighty God.

for more information click here

Great read!

Great read...keep in mind that it's just a historical fiction novel, just Anita Diamant's attempt to fill in the blanks with a possible story, but in no way a claim to truth. Very entertaining, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Quite Good

The Red Tent / 0-312-19551-6

I'm not usually a big fan of Biblical novels, because a slavish devotion to the source material usually results in a poor story, paper thin characters, and unlikely plot propulsion. However, Diamat manages to avoid all this by filling her the gaps in the Biblical story of Leah, Rachel, and Dinah with a rich history and mythology that rings plausibly true.

Diamat's biggest success is by discarding as male propaganda much of the portrayals of the women central to the narrative. She reasons that Leah and Rachel do not hate each other so much as they have a (relatively, given the polygamist circumstances) normal sibling rivalry relationship. Leah, especially, comes across as very sympathetic - a much stronger character than in the Bible, where she hopefully moons after Jacob and then quietly submits to the 'trade' proposed by her father. Here she is determined, strong, a good cook, and an able mother. Jacob is more too blame for the acceptance of the switch - Diamat emphasizes the unlikelihood that Jacob wouldn't realize his Rachel had been substituted for Leah. Jacob, in this acceptance, effectively purchases two good wives (and then four, with their servants), for the 'price' of steady employment.

Diamat also discards, again as propaganda, the idea that the women meekly discarded their life-long idols for this new god brought to them by their outlander husband. This much seems to be rooted in fact - it is clear that the 'queen of heaven' was worshipped by Hebrew women for centuries, and even mention of it (and condemnation of it, of course) is made in the Bible. The women make a good show of pretense to their new husband, but see no reason to discard their family's theology and social values just because the men say so. Hence, the value of the feminine divine, the discarding of the 'sacred hymen' theology (which has value only to men, as proof that a girl cannot be pregnant with another man's child, but has no value to women, as it increases the pain of the wedding night).

And, lastly, Diamat discards the idea that Dinah's lover was her rapist and, instead, maintains that the story was a ploy to allow her brothers to slaughter the men in the city. This is nicely handled, as well as the fact that Dinah is never mentioned in the Bible again - she has left her family and emigrated. This is where the novel sort of breaks down, though, as the abuse and abandonment Dinah suffers at the hands of her adopted mother-in-law seems to be handled unnaturally. It is unfair that Dinah is hated so much by the woman - in this culture of men and brutality, it seems likely that this woman would realize that this was no more Dinah's fault than her own (she had encouraged her son to 'take' Dinah without marriage). It's marginally realistic, of course - people are rarely 100% logical - but it feels more like a plot device than a natural response. In the end, the novel is intriguing and far better than most Biblical novels, but the ending does ring a bit hollow.

for more information click here

Interesting perspective on an age old story

I really enjoyed this story and was fascinated by "a different way to look at it" or a different perspective on an age old story. I wanted the relationship between Joseph and Dinah to be different at the end...I think I would have enjoyed the book more, had that been the case. I was a little disheartened by his (Joseph's) portrayal in the later part of this book, and I had some difficulty in believing Dinah's anger toward him at the end. After all, he too had been treated badly by the Brothers. Anyway, all in all, it was a very enjoyable story. The audio version is narrated very well.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

My Favorite Reads in Historical Romance and Historical Fiction
Fabulous Fiction for Strong, Earth-Spirited Women
Midwifery fiction and nonfiction
A Lifetime of Reading
My Top Must-Read List

search for books
novel, red, tent

Impressum / about us