Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition

by Anita Diamant

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I first read The Red Tent for tenth grade English.  It was a curious choice, as the protagonist is a figure from the Bible, and I don't think it is one most other schools teach.  Despite being assigned academic reading, The Red Tent stole 15-year-old me's heart because it was an empowering story about women in a world I was familiar with... and in a world where I had been taught only the men truly mattered.

In the years since, I have found different reasons to love this book as I've read and re-read it.  I love the idea of the red tent itself - a time where women celebrated together during menstruation as opposed to the culturally disgusted view my culture has of this natural process.  Rachel's story meant so much to me when I was going through a hard time, and Zilpah's staunch spirituality always impressed me.  There are so many different women in this book at so many different stages of their lives and experiencing different things... in many ways, The Red Tent is a celebration of the female experience and I think that's amazing.

Outside of the thematic elements... I would say this book it cut firmly in three parts.  Part one is the story of Dinah's three mothers, and my person favorite.  Part two is about Dinah's childhood, teen years, and first love.  Part three is Dinah's adulthood and time in Egypt.  All three parts have very different feels, and to those familiar with the biblical version of Dinah's story, Anita Diamant has taken some liberties.

Very little of this story is historical fact, as all we know of Dinah's story is a single chapter in the book of Genesis.  Many biblical versions of this story say that Dinah was raped, and indeed within the story, Dinah has no voice of her own.  In the Bible, Simeon and Levi are heroes who have avenged the rape of their sister.  Dinah herself has no voice.  However, in The Red Tent, Diamant has chosen to interpret differently:  this is not a rape, but the two characters fall in love, and Simeon and Levi are the villains for much of the story.  I could probably write a whole essay on the biblical word choice in some translations within Dinah's story and whether they considered her personally violated or their property ruined... but that would tell us nothing of the book.

I like the first part best because of the variety of characters.  Every time I re-read this, I am astounded by how short part one is.  I love all Dinah's mothers - Leah, Rachel, Bilpah, and Zilpah.  They are all such distinct personalities and I enjoy their stories.  I find part three - when we enter Egypt with the mourning Dinah - to be the hardest part to read.  The pacing in this book, for me, seems entirely unbalanced and moves quickest at the beginning.  The end of the story drags.  While Diamant's writing is beautiful throughout the book, there's definitely more of a honey-thickness to the ending where the beginning is spun sugar: laughter, and lightness.  The tone change makes sense within the parameters of Dinah's journey, so by no means is this poorly written, but it is not my personal preference.

One of the things I struggled with in my latest read was whether this would still be considered a feminist retelling, or if the way the women lessen themselves before their husbands (at least in person - there's definitely jeering in the red tent itself) would make it problematic.  Women certainly are reduced to the typical tropes of childbearing, cooking, and weaving.  There's a lot of emphasis on women wanting to have babies... but... there's also Zilpah, who balances it out by saying, "listen, I did the thing, no more".  And of course this is historical fiction and while women are certainly honored in ways they are not now, the flip side of that is the imbalance of gender roles in this era.  This was the middle east in about 1800 BCE, so... yes, culturally, things were different and we can only speculate based on the limited resources we have.

All in all, I still enjoy The Red Tent, especially the beginning of it.  The end is a little sappy for me, but I think that Anita Diamant did a good job bringing to life one of the biblical women who had no voice in her own story.  The world she builds feels historically possible, and the characters are all unique and interesting in their own ways.  If for no other reason, The Red Tent is worth taking a look at for anyone interested in historical fiction and historical women because I haven't run across anything quite like it.  Taking on biblical characters, even in modern times, is chancy and Diamant did a wonderful job.

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4th Read: May 27, 2015 - 5 stars

I love this book.

Every time I read it, I want to pick it back up and read it again immediately, until each word is etched on the inside of my skull, a carved memory I could never remove. I love Dinah, and I love her mothers, in each of their remarkable ways. I know this book is a work of historical fiction, but I feel like I can walk into Dinah's world and walk beside Leah or Rachel or Zilpah and be a part of their story. I think in part this is due to the style or storytelling - it's written as though it was spoken, a transcript of the oral tradition.

The other reason, however, is personal. My father gave me my middle name Rachel to be named for Rachel, daughter of Laban, second wife of Jacob. I am immediately attached to any version of Rachel's story, even that of her surrogate daughter, and in that way I am immediately plunged into the work. So I may be unfairly fond of it, and it would certainly explain why I lose interested as Dinah gets older. But I always finish it.

Outside of the growth on a side of a story that is never told, one of the few women in a religious tradition abounded by men, the way Diamond weaves her story is full and lyrical. I find myself feeling Bilhah's pain as she disappears, Zilch's delight that she had swallowed the moon (I love, love, love that term for pregnancy). I love Leah and Rachel's rivalry and I love the way they are as real and beautiful and individual and passionate as any woman should be able to be. I enjoy reading and rereading this book because the characters feel like friends.