A fictionalized account of the life of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah. In the Bible, Dinah is raped by Shalem, and her brothers avenge her family's honor by killing all the men of the town. In The Red Tent, Dinah falls passionately in love with Shalem and her brothers murder her beloved and the other men of the town for their own self-serving reasons.
My thoughts
I first read this book six or seven years ago, and I reveled in every word. It was beautifully written and the story was pure magic. The topic of favorite books came up at lunch last week and I started raving about The Red Tent. "Ugh, didn't the obvious bias against men bother you?" one of my friends asked. Far from it—it hadn't even made an impression on me. I remembered that the book had a strong female voice, but any memory of male-bashing escaped me completely. But where I saw potent feminine pride, he saw misandry. Obviously, I needed to reread the book.
I can see what upset him. Laban especially doesn't come out well in this retelling (not that he's an upstanding citizen in the Bible either), and the men of The Red Tent in general beat their wives, have sex with the livestock, and view women as chattel. But honestly, men in the Biblical era were, to put it diplomatically, unenlightened when it came to women, so any modern-day portrait of them is bound to be unflattering. Diamant also slips in remarks about "boys, who were forever peeing into the corners of the tents, no matter what you told them," but I took these as the ancient equivalent of good-natured complaints about men who never put the toilet seat down.
If I was surprised by anything, it was the depiction of seemingly modern men—Shalem, Benia, Jacob—who genuinely love their wives and care about their happiness. Shalem is especially intriguing. Of course, in order for this retelling to work, he has to be transformed from a rapist to a passionate lover. I'm just not sure I buy it. I want to, but I don't know if I can.
And now I have to admit ... I didn't love The Red Tent as much as I did the first time around. It's supposed to be Dinah's story, but the real heart and soul of the book is the bond between Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah, and the heritage they pass on to Dinah, the only daughter of the next generation. The book suffers when her story diverges from theirs. It's still strong, but it pales by comparison. However, even with a relatively weaker second half, The Red Tent is in a class of its own.
There's so much that's right here, particularly the love-hate relationship between Leah and Rachel and the mother-daughter tension between Leah and Dinah. And now that I've embarked on my own infertility journey, Rachel's story took on new meaning for me. The warm tone of the book brings you into the red tent and makes you feel like you're part of the sisterhood.
A large part of the beauty of the book is Diamant's masterful grasp of storytelling. This is a book that can be experienced with all five senses, and Dinah and her mothers all come vividly to life. Diamant gives a voice not only to Dinah but to all Biblical women.
Bottom line
A masterpiece by a woman, about women, for women.
Fine print
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
Genre: fiction
Photo from Goodreads
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