The Red Tent (Diamant novel)
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 Cover of the first-edition hardcover | |
| Author | Anita Diamant |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | A Wyatt Book for St. Martin's Press |
Publication date | October, 1997 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 321 p. (hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | 0-312-35376-6 |
| OCLC | 62322613 |
| LC Class | PS3554.I227 R43 2005 |
The Red Tent is a novel by Anita Diamant, published in 1997 by Wyatt Books for St. Martin's Press. It is a first-person narrative which tells the story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph, a talented midwife and proto-feminist. She is a minor character in the Bible, but the author has broadened her story.[1] The book's title refers to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law, take refuge while menstruating or giving birth, and in which they find mutual support and encouragement from their mothers, sisters and aunts.
Plot summary
Dinah opens the story by recounting for readers the union of her mother Leah and father Jacob, as well as the expansion of the family to include Leah's sister Rachel, and Zilpah and Bilhah. Leah is depicted as capable but testy, Rachel something of a belle but kind and creative, Zilpah as mature and serious and Bilhah as the quiet one of the quartet. The book also downplays the rivalry between Leah and Rachel.
Dinah remembers sitting in the red tent with her mother and aunts, gossiping about local events and taking care of domestic duties between visits to Jacob, the patriarch of the family. A number of other characters not seen in the Biblical account appear here, including Laban's second wife Ruti and her feckless sons.
According to the Bible's account in Genesis 34, Dinah was "defiled" by a prince of Shechem, although he is described as being genuinely in love with Dinah. He also offers a bride-price fit for royalty. Displeased at how the prince treated their sister, her brothers Simeon (spelled "Simon" in the book) and Levi treacherously tell the Shechemites that all will be forgiven if the prince and his men undergo the Jewish rite of circumcision so as to unite the people of Hamor, king of Shechem, with the tribe of Jacob. The Shechemites agree, and shortly after they go under the knife, while incapacitated by pain, they are murdered by Dinah's brothers and their male servants, who then rescue Dinah.
In The Red Tent, Dinah genuinely loves the prince, and willingly becomes his bride. She is horrified and grief-stricken by her brothers' murderous rampage. After berating her brothers and father she escapes to Egypt where she gives birth to a son. In time she finds another love, and reconciles with her brother Joseph, now prime minister of Egypt. At the death of Jacob, she visits her estranged family. She learns she has been all but forgotten by her other living brothers and father but that her story lives on with the females of Jacob's tribe.
Errors
The night before Jacob's clan leaves Laban's household, Dinah describes the somber mood between the women who are leaving and those who will stay: "They had laughed in the garden and sung harmonies for the new moon. But those days were ending, and each woman sat with her own memories, her own loss." Two chapters later, as Jacob's clan first meets Esau's clan, Deborah says this of Esau's wives and daughters:
They sang the words in unison, yet somehow created a web of sound with their voices. It was like hearing a piece of fabric woven with all the colors of a rainbow. I did not know that such beauty could be formed by the human mouth. I had never heard harmony before.
Reception
The book was a New York Times bestseller, and is a perennial book club favorite. According to the Los Angeles Times review, "By giving a voice to Dinah, one of the silent female characters in Genesis, the novel has struck a chord with women who may have felt left out of biblical history. It celebrates mothers and daughters and the mysteries of the life cycle." The Christian Science Monitor wrote that the novel "vividly conjures up the ancient world of caravans, shepherds, farmers, midwives, slaves, and artisans.... Diamant's is a compelling narrator of a tale that has timeless resonance."
References
- The Red Tent (1997) ISBN 0-312-16978-7
- Rabbi J. Avram Rothman, The Red Tent - if you knew Dina like I know Dina. Aish.com, June 2001.
- Photos of the first edition of The Red Tent
- ^ "The Red Tent". Retrieved 2010-06-23.