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The Red Tent
Reviews
Booksense Book
of the Year, 2001
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From The Boston Globe
An intense, vivid novel ... It is tempting to say that The Red Tent is what
the Bible would be like if it had been written by women, but only
Diamant could have given it such sweep and grace.
From the Christian Science Monitor
Diamant vividly conjures up the ancient world of caravans, farmers,
midwives, slaves, and artisans . . . her Dinah is a compelling narrator that
has timeless resonance.
From Kirkus Reviews
Cubits beyond most Woman-of-the-Bible sagas in sweep and vigor, this
fictive flight based on the Genesis mention of Dinah, offspring of Jacob
and Leah, disclaims her as a mere "defiled" victim and, further, celebrates
the ancient continuity and unity of women. .. . With stirring scenery and a
narrative of force and
color, a readable tale marked by hortatory fulminations and voluptuous
lamentations. For a liberal Bible audience with a possible spillover to the
Bradley relationship.
From Publishers Weekly
A minor character from the book of Genesis tells her life story in this
vivid evocation of the world of Old Testament women. The only
surviving daughter of Jacob and Leah, Dinah occupies a far different
world from the flocks and business deals of her brothers. She learns from
her Aunt Sarah the mysteries of midwifery and from her other aunts the
art of homemaking. Most important, Dinah learns and preserves the
stories and
traditions of her family, which she shares with the reader in touchingly
intimate detail. Familiar passages from the Bible come alive as Dinah fills
in what the Bible leaves out concerning Jacob's courtship of Rachel and
Leah, her own ill-fated sojourn in the city of Shechem and her
half-brother Joseph's rise to fame and fortune in Egypt.
. . . . Diamant succeeds admirably in depicting the lives of women in the
age that engendered our civilization and our most enduring values
From Library Journal *(starred review)
Skillfully interweaving biblical tales with characters of her own invention,
Diamant's sweeping first novel re-creates the life of Dinah, daughter of
Leah and Jacob, from her birth and happy childhood in Mesopotamia
through her years in Canaan and death in Egypt. When Dinah reaches
puberty and enters the Red Tent (the place women visit to give birth or
have their monthly periods), her mother and Jacob's three other wives initiate her into the
religious and sexual practices of the tribe. Diamant sympathetically
describes Dinah's doomed relationship with Shalem, son of a ruler of
Schechem, and his brutal death at the hands of her brothers. . . .
Diamant has written a thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating portrait of a
fascinating woman and the life she might have lived.
From The Catholic Reporter
This earthy, passionate tale, told also with great delicacy, is, quite simply
a great read.
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