Since it's the fourth day of my Book Advent Calendar, we are at the letter "D" and I've chosen a book by Anita Diamant. Almost exactly a year ago, I watched the two-part miniseries based on this bestseller.
Day Four: The Red Tent – Anita Diamant
4 Stars
The story
is narrated by Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and his first wife Leah. Dinah tells the stories of her four mothers
(Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah) and their children, all sons. The novel begins with her birth and childhood
in Mesopotamia and continues through her years in Canaan and old age in
Egypt.
Dinah is mentioned
in the Bible, very briefly, so the author fleshed out her story. The focus is almost entirely on the women;
the men are almost incidental. The men
intrude as catalysts in the women’s lived, but they have little to contribute
to the power of the women.
The title
refers to the place where the women retreat once a month at the time of the
dark moon when women bleed. There the
women share their secrets and stories and take respite from the hardships of
their everyday lives. Women are not seen
as victims of their bodies; their bodies are the givers of life. Sex and biology are treated in a way that is
tender, natural, and sacred.
The book is
set in the time before monotheism had taken hold as the dominant religion. Jacob, his father Isaac, and his grandfather
Abraham were the founders of the faith that would spread monotheism but the
women they married were from polytheistic tribes and they carried these beliefs
with them. Diamant also avoids the urge
to have her women adopt modern attitudes not in keeping with tradition.
This is an
enjoyable portrait of a Biblical woman and the life that she might have lived.
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