The Red Tent: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Anita Diamant
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Rating:  1442 reviews
Sales Rank: 264444
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B001F0RA3E
Publication Date: August 21, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Very good condition, clean and tight, with light creasing and subtle shelf wear, multiple copies, may be an ex library copy, will send the best available, fast shipping, excellent service.
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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
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 MAKE THIS A FILM January 2, 2009
A. Thomas
Yes, THE RED TENT needs to become a film SOON.
Who will do this?
A great story! December 24, 2008
Let me first state that this book is not for the religiously sensitive, anyone looking for historical/religious insight, or anyone who is easily offended. I think a lot of the negative reviews come from people with certain historical or religious expectations.
However, if you are simply looking for a compelling feminist story, you're in the right place. I'd place The Red Tent along side The Mists of Avalon for both historic and religious accuracy and content- so basically, don't look for it. But if you want a story about women, strong, spiritual, women, this is a great story.
This book touched me profoundly- and it is far more than sitting outside a maternity/labor ward, as on reviewer suggested. There is so much more deeper meaning in this story, and it's not difficult to discover.
This is one of my favorite books. If you liked The Mists of Avalon, you will probably like this one- or vice versa.
 Disgusting SMUT!! December 16, 2008
chocaholic
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Although this book is interesting in a historical context, the sex and inappropriate portions far outweigh the good parts of the book. I felt like I needed to go wash my eyes out after reading part of this book. Filthy!
God Bless All The negative Reviewers Who Warned Me Away From From This FILTH! December 11, 2008
Chris H. (,OH,U.S.A.)
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
Fortunately I usually read the negative reviews of a book,as well as the good ones,because as a Christian they often warn of something offensive that I do not want to read. Thankfully,that was the case here with The Red Tent.There is no way that I want to read about men having sex with animals,or to read a blasphemous book that should have never been written.It saddens me to see how so many are so lacking in discernment that they would actually enjoy such garbage,and not find it offensive to God and their own beliefs. Christians have been bought with a very high price,and we are not free to choose to read/see/listen to whatever we desire,but we must adhere to the teachings of Jesus,who warned us to guard our very thoughts. This book sounds like it is on the same level as so many of those sexually explicit trashy non-Christian romance novels,which are nothing more than pornography without the pictures!
So I sincerely thank all those reviewers who shared their thoughtful and often heartfelt reasons for their objections to this book. I thought the premise sounded interesting,as I once read a wonderful fictionalized account of living during the time Jesus walked with men,'The Kingdom And The Crown' 3-book series by Gerald N. Lund ,and I loved it,but I would have been very offended had I read The Red Tent. The reviewers here saved me from making that mistake.
Bible stories from a woman's eye November 23, 2008
Kaeli Vandertulip (Irving, TX USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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).
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