Sunday 9 December 2012

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Dinah is the daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph, remembered in the Bible only for being the victim of a rape that leads to mass murder and devastation for her family.  In The Red Tent, Diamant imagines what it would have been like to be a woman in biblical times and retells the story from the point of view of Dinah herself.  Starting with the lives of her mother Leah and her three sisters and ending with Dinah's old age, Diamant draws on the pagan traditions of the time and the mythology around women and birth.  Leah and her sisters all share the same husband, Jacob, and Dinah grows up as the only girl among eleven brothers.  Every new moon, the women of the compound retreat to the red tent (this coincides with their menstrual cycles) and here Dinah learns the stories of the woman around her, including some of the skills of midwifery.  When she comes of age and decides to choose a husband for herself without consulting her family, the insult is too much for some of her brothers to bear and a cycle of violence is started.

The Red Tent is one of those books I've had sitting of my shelf for years; I kept meaning to read it but never got around to it.  I went into it with high hopes as I love historical fiction set in ancient times, especially when the challenges the reader by adopting a female narrator.  And on the whole, I was pleased with The Red Tent.  It was engagingly written and hard to put down.  The female characters were well imagined and distinct from each other.  There's a powerful sense of emotion throughout the story; I especially felt for Rachel as she was unable to carry a child to term but had to watch her sisters repeatedly become pregnant and give birth.  It's a book that I'm still thinking about days after finishing it, which is always a good sign.

But unfortunately I didn't adore The Red Tent in the way I was hoping to, perhaps my expectations were too high. The biggest problem I had with it was the earth-mother tone and all the worship of periods and fertility. This is perhaps my own personal bias here, but I find it corny to read about women celebrating their periods as linking them to the earth and motherhood as the pinnacle of what it means to be a woman.  Before you remind me, I know this is set in Biblical times and motherhood was what it meant to be a woman then, but I still felt as though Diamant was over the top with the female rituals and menstruation worship.  It was though Diamant was also trying to make a point to women today (to celebrate our periods?), that she was claiming that the woman in The Red Tent had the right idea (look at all the sisterhood) and to be honest, it made me a bit uncomfortable.  I think there is much more to being a woman than this and I didn't like Diamant's agenda. I'm not an earth-mother kind of girl.

However, I did enjoy the sections on midwifery and birth. I'm not a mother myself but I still found it fascinating to read about the different techniques women of those times would have used to get a woman through birth.  I think we in the West sometimes forget how inherently dangerous giving birth to a child is as death is always lurking for the women in the story.

Although the female characters were well developed, I found the male characters a little one-dimensional.  There is a deliberate distance adopted (men are not allowed in the red tent), but still they seemed either good (Shechem) or evil (Laban) with nothing in between.  I didn't believe that any of the relationships between Jacob and his wives were emotionally fulfilling for the women in them.  Strict Christians may also object to the liberty Diamant takes with some Biblical events, although this wasn't an issue for me.

When I finished this book, I was intending to give it a low rating but it is a book that has stuck in my mind and the more I look back on it, the more I appreciate the story and female characters.  It's just a shame it didn't live up to my expectations.

Source: Personal copy
First Published: 1997
My Edition: Pan Macmillan, 2001
Score: 3.5 out of 5

Read Alongside:
1. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman - another retelling of an event in Jewish history, the mass suicide in Masada in 70AD.  This is how I feel retellings from female points of view should be done.
2. The Gilded Chamber by Rebecca Kohn - The story of Purim from the point of view of Esther.
3. Jerusalem Maiden by Talia Carner - A little bit further on in history, but still worth reading.  An Orthodox Jew, Esther, strains against the boundaries of her religion during Ottoman times.

21 comments:

  1. I read this years ago and felt almost exactly as you did. The men were poorly developed and the "earth-mother" stuff was over the top. (I wonder now if my own problems with painful periods is one of the reasons I can't deal with stories that link womanhood and menstruation too closely.) A lot of women I know really loved this book, so it was a big disappointment when I found it so much of it to be annoying.

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    1. I'm relieved that you had a similar reaction Teresa as I know how popular this book is. I don't have a problem with periods but I still don't want them to become the essence of my womanhood!

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  2. When I began reading your review I thought the book sounded promising. By the end of it I am sure that it really isn't my cup of tea. I really would like to read a book set in the Old Testament times though...do you read much of these? Wat would you recommend?

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    1. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman is very good - it's set in 70AD and is about the siege of Masada. I'd start there :)

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  3. Years ago, when one of my rabbis gave me this book to read, she said it would radicalise me. I don't know that it did that particularly, but I know why she said it. Biblically, this story is always a tough one to break down, and over the years - much like the Samson story in 1 Kings - Dina has been either sidelined or held up to be the problem. She's not mentioned a great deal in the commentaries either, and it wasn't until women like Diamant started investigating her, that hers and other women's stories became more fleshed out. Diamant, incidentally, is well-respected for her scholarship.

    I've not read it for years, and my copy is in storage, but I keep seeing copies of it all over the place, so perhaps it's time I did!

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    1. I think you would have had a different experience to me reading this book as I'm an atheist so I come at it from a completely different perspective to you. To be honest, I wasn't very familiar with Dinah's story before this book; I was more interested in the general issue of what it was like to be a woman at that time.

      I'm sure Diamant's research was excellent, that does come across. I thought some of the studies about synchronised periods among communities of women had been questioned though?

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  4. I read this several years ago and I remember not liking as much as I had expected either. Although, to be honest, now I don't remember why that was!

    I give a lot of credit to authors who bring certain Biblical characters out of obscurity. Some efforts are more successful than others, though...

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    1. There is so much hype around it that it was always going to be hard for it to live up to expectations for me - the goodreads score is out of this world considering the number of ratings!

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  5. I've avoided this because several years ago it was very popular with the book groups at my library and I usually don't like the things they read so...I stayed away. I really do enjoy when authors tell the stories of obscure historical figures, though, so I think I would give this a try, celebration of menstruation and all!

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    1. It's a very book group book, I can imagine it would generate lots of interesting discussion. Maybe the menstruation celebration will be OK if you go in forewarned..... :P

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  6. I read The Red Tent many years ago and really liked it but I wonder if it's one of those books that I would dislike on a re-read now. I forgot about all the menstruation worship!

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    1. It would be interesting to see if you still like it as much on the second read. I have to admit it's not one I can see myself revisiting.

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  7. I fear when I finally get around to reading this, I'll have the same sort of reactions. So many people on Shelfari who have read this and just loved it, and usually those are the ones that don't live up for me. I tried audio, but the narrator annoyed me so much I turned it off right away. I think I'll hunt a copy down through the library, and not buy it.

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    1. I often find very popular books don't work for me either. The Red Tent was good, but I've read better historical fiction. Maybe these 'crossover' books, that appeal to those who don't really read the genre, aren't the best for existing fans of the genre?

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  8. Hmm.. that stinks. I remember picking it up a few years back because everyone I knew was praising it. I still intend to read it because it sounds like it was an overall success. Too bad with poor character development and cult-like activities. Although, I'm not sure I even want to read it because of those reasons because it just makes me angry (more that women are mere child-bearers and MEN are all great and knowing), but still I'll probably push forward. Can always expect an honest and straight forward review from you. Thanks!

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    1. I hate the concept that women aren't proper women unless they bear children too. I mean, I want to have children, but I don't want that to be the only thing I am defined by - after I have children, I will still have my brain and all my other attributes :)

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  9. I've had this on my shelf for years now but haven't read it. I'm not into that earth mother stuff or in celebrating periods, but it still does sound like interesting historical fiction.

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    1. The historical fiction is very interesting and well researched, so it does balance out in the end.

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  10. I read this book before I started blogging and I remember really liking it. Parts really resonated with me. Like you I enjoyed the midwifery and birth scenes. The whole women being segregated during menstruation was fascinating to me. I've been thinking about re-reading it again to see if I still like it.

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  11. While I have mixed feelings about Red Tent, I don't mind their attitude to menstruation.
    True, for biblical women it would mean celebrating biological motherhood, but it can be very differently interpreted. I recall Nina Andrycz, a very famous Polish actress, childless by choice in times where it was even more difficult to stand by - she said every premiere in the theatre felt like sending your child out to the world. Celebrating menstruation can be celebrating womanhood however you define it and whatever it means to you.

    What I mind is today's culture attitude. I mean even in adverts for various pads they don't use red dye, but something blueish, as if the blood was something to be ashamed of, SO EMBARRASING. The adverts usually go along the lines that our product would make this day as usual as any other. Look! No stains! Nothing special either. I liked the idea of women using this time of month as time for themselves only, to relax, enjoy etc. Much different from what we have today. I don't like it being ridiculed and dismissed.
    I don't say that we should make some offerings by full moon, (although I know some women, way past their childbearing age who still do) but respecting very important aspect of female physicality is not a bad idea to me.

    To summarise what I did not like - it is the very thing you wrote about, the male characters. Or more precisely - how their women treat them. It is the same attitude men had had through centuries - just some ridiculous talk, they just don't get anything right, and don't know anything of importance either. Condescending and patronizing. The women in this book should know better, they are created as intelligent :)

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  12. Ooo...I'm not sure I would like it as well if that's the case. I have "good harbour" with me. Still a story about female biblical characters deserves a read.

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