The Red Tent

Title: The Red Tent
Author: Anita Diamant
Pub Date: 1997
Genre: Historical Fiction
Nutshell: The untold story of the Biblical Dinah, daughter of Jacob, sister of Joseph

First off, this book is gorgeously written. Diamant really gets the overall spirit of much of the beauty in the Old Testament. I have to quote from the beginning here, just to give you a taste: "I am so grateful that you have come. I will pour out everything inside me so you may leave this table satisfied and fortified. Blessings on your eyes. Blessings on your children. Blessings on the ground beneath you. My heart is a ladle of sweet water, brimming over. Selah." I did not grow up in any kind of Hebrew tradition, but it seems that Diamant did and you can tell. That is poetry.

Now, a small warning. I really liked this book. Granted, I'm not nearly as overburdened with Biblical history knowledge as I am with early medieval British history, so there is that. I was raised religious (Southern Baptist, church every Sunday and Wednesday, all that business), but I am no fundamentalist and I prefer to see much of the Bible (especially the OT) as more symbolic and poetic than literal. So the stories of Jacob and Joseph are certainly familiar to me, but I'm certainly not tied to them as firm history. If you prefer to take your Bible a bit more traditionally, this may not be for you, as it retells some things in a rather different light and doesn't always make everyone as blameless as they might come off in the original. 

So to business. Dinah (Dee-nah, not Die-nah) was the daughter of Jacob and his first wife Leah, and the only girl born to Jacob from any of his wives. She is the storyteller here, and she weaves a beautiful tale of life growing up among her mothers and brothers. Central to her life is the red tent, where the women of the tribe retire during their cycles away from the men of the camp. This is where she learns all the knows of her mothers' stories before she was born, as well as much of the wisdom she knows about the nature of being a woman. 

I'm not going to get into the plot here but to say that the story of Dinah is based on the scant mention of her in Genesis, but it is obviously much expanded and embellished. The figures of Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah are also enhanced and made much more human, much more actual women and less just feminine names in the masculine-centered original. Her brothers fade into the background more, as Dinah barely sees some of them and many were quite a bit older. She has a fondness for the more gentle Reuben and the beautiful Judah, and her brother Joseph and she are playmates for several years as children. But hers is the world of the women, and the story is a celebration of history and maternal lineage and the mysteries of womanhood. It also creates a vivid picture of life in Canaan and the surrounding areas during this time period. You can smell the spices and feel the dust and the heat. It's all very well-told. 

I'm not going to say that a man couldn't enjoy this book, but I think it's definitely more geared toward women. Which is refreshing if you're used to the Bible and all its maleness. You never get much of an idea what the life of women was like from the Old Testament. Diamant has obviously done her research, and it shows. Dinah is an engaging narrator and the story flows quickly enough that it's never a chore to read. If you're familiar with the traditional stories, you'll see the bones of them here and there, fleshed out in some places, differently-explained in others. All in all a good story and a beautiful read.