The Red Tent
 Anita Diamant
 (Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
 1997 St. Martin's Press
 ISBN: 0312169787

Her name is Dinah & in the Book of Genesis her life is hinted only in passing as the story focuses on her father, Jacob & his dozen sons. In the world of the red moon tent are voiced the traditions & turmoils of ancient biblical womanhood.

The Red Tent is for everywoman who has ever wondered what life was really like in those ancient times beyond the begats of the fathers, the brothers & the sons. It is the story of the wives of Jacob & his life in clusters of desert tents as his 12 sons grow into manhood. Told through the voice of Dinah, Jacob's last born child & only daughter, we are welcomed into the heart of a tribe-in-the-making. As women retreat to the red tent in their monthly cycles, boys grow away from their mothers & the one daughter is told all her mothers' stories & looks forward to her own womanhood.

This is not for the religiously faint-of-heart nor for those who cannot look beyond the androcentric bestseller of this millennium - those people will be easily offended by this story of Dinah's mothers - Leah, Rachel, Zilpah & Bilhah - the story of women's society among the shepherds, farmers, slaves & artisans of that ancient world.

It is also the story of honored & trusted midwives who achieved a status of great worth & recognition, breaking all class barriers. When Dinah leaves her past behind after her brothers betray her, it is the love of her child that gives her the strength to carry on in a strange new land. It is her skill as a midwife that takes her out into that world where her life begins again.

The Red Tent is for every red-blooded woman who has ever questioned her hidden heritage - the one that's rarely spoken & written about. For anywoman who thought those biblical mothers must have had real lives of value & meaning beyond being baby-factories. This genesis story is truly a 100% womanly read.

Incidentally, as I read about the lives of the wives (polygamy was part of our Biblical foreparents' lifestyle) I kept getting glimpses of the Latter Day Saints' erstwhile domesticity & remembrances of my commune years back in the 1970s - very interesting & though-provoking. Made me think a lot about peoples who, to this day, still practice multiple-wife marriages. Made me think that monogamy isn't all it's cracked up to be!

Notwithstanding the press of completing her next book & her family life, Anita Diamant sent me her FAQs & answered 2 of my own questions. Because The Red Tent is such a pivotal read, I have included it as a Interview.

More from Anita Diamant: Choosing a Jewish Life; Bible Baby Names; The New Jewish Baby Book; The New Jewish Wedding & Living a Jewish Life with H. Cooper.
(04/01/01)

Rebecca