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jennmo_pei 's review for:
The Red Tent
by Anita Diamant
This is a book I come back to and read at least once a year - and I still stay up too late to keep reading it every time.
A powerfully written story that looks behind the footnote that is Dinah's story from the Bible. We know from the Bible that Dinah was taken to wife by a prince and that as bride price Jacob demanded that all the men of the city be circumcised. As the men are recovering from this, Jacob's sons descend upon the city killing all the men and taking the women and children as slaves. This is all the Bible tells of of Dinah's story. In fact, most women's stories are mere footnotes and incidental in the Bible.
Diamant takes us into the world of women during biblical times. The Red Tent was the women's private domain, where they went to celebrate the new moon, to relax together, eating, singing, telling stories as they sat in the straw while their courses ran.
We hear the stories of Jacob's wives - Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah. We learn of their joy when there is, finally, a girl who lives to grow and hear her mother's stories. As Dinah grows, the family leaves the valley where they have been for years and returns to reconcile with Esau. This is a time filled with uncertainty and tension - how will they be received? We are witness to they reunion of Jacob with his parents, Rebecca and Isaac.
One day, Dinah travels with Rachel to serve as midwives to a concubine of the local king. Here, the fateful meeting between the prince and Dinah takes place. But what happened to Dinah after the massacre of her husband and all the other men? Diamant has woven a story that imagines a history for Dinah that brings her to that fateful day in history and beyond as she lives out her life.
A powerfully written story that looks behind the footnote that is Dinah's story from the Bible. We know from the Bible that Dinah was taken to wife by a prince and that as bride price Jacob demanded that all the men of the city be circumcised. As the men are recovering from this, Jacob's sons descend upon the city killing all the men and taking the women and children as slaves. This is all the Bible tells of of Dinah's story. In fact, most women's stories are mere footnotes and incidental in the Bible.
Diamant takes us into the world of women during biblical times. The Red Tent was the women's private domain, where they went to celebrate the new moon, to relax together, eating, singing, telling stories as they sat in the straw while their courses ran.
We hear the stories of Jacob's wives - Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah. We learn of their joy when there is, finally, a girl who lives to grow and hear her mother's stories. As Dinah grows, the family leaves the valley where they have been for years and returns to reconcile with Esau. This is a time filled with uncertainty and tension - how will they be received? We are witness to they reunion of Jacob with his parents, Rebecca and Isaac.
One day, Dinah travels with Rachel to serve as midwives to a concubine of the local king. Here, the fateful meeting between the prince and Dinah takes place. But what happened to Dinah after the massacre of her husband and all the other men? Diamant has woven a story that imagines a history for Dinah that brings her to that fateful day in history and beyond as she lives out her life.