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    The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel
    The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel
    The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel

    Written by Anita Diamant

    Narrated by Carol Bilger

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In this modern classic interpretation of the biblical story of Dinah, Anita Diamant imagines the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of The Red Tent, a New York Times bestseller and the basis of the A&E/Lifetime mini-series.

    Twentieth Anniversary Edition

    In the Bible, Dinah's life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that tell of her father, Jacob, and his twelve sons.

    The Red Tent begins with the story of the mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through childhood, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past.

    Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling and the valuable achievement of presenting a new view of biblical women's lives.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateMar 1, 2003
    ISBN9781593971328
    Author

    Anita Diamant

    Anita Diamant is the bestselling author of the novels The Boston Girl, The Red Tent, Good Harbor, The Last Days of Dogtown, and Day After Night, and the collection of essays, Pitching My Tent. An award-winning journalist whose work appeared in The Boston Globe Magazine and Parenting, and many others, she is the author of six nonfiction guides to contemporary Jewish life. She lives in Massachusetts. Visit her website at AnitaDiamant.com.

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    Reviews for The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition

    4/5

    5,620 ratings258 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this story! Very easy to read / listen to. An interesting perspective of a woman’s point of view.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Amazing. I have no words for the freedom this book has given me. For the words it has bestowed upon me to articulate the deepest and most ancient truths of my bones. Thank you for this gift. Blessings to the author, and blessings to each reader who’s heart it has the opportunity to touch.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A powerful and arresting narrative that I will come back to again and again.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I had no intention of reading this book; but, it had been suggested to me for years. One of the blurbs on the back cover of the book says, " "The Red Tent" is a fine novel." And it is. I enjoyed the read. It covers the life of Dinah who appears in the Book of Genesis. I thought it gave a good take on what life may have been for the average woman in early biblical time.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This is a great book ful of culture, love and strength. I am recommending it to all my friends.
    • 5/5
      Such a gorgeous story. The truth of life at a time when women did not have their stories told.
    • 5/5
      This book touched me like no other!!! Loved it!!
    • 5/5
      Wish I could give it 10 stars! It does not entirely follow the Scriptures but it is an amazing story. Highly recommend. Note: some parts are not for the ears of children.
    • 5/5
      Wooow! An amazing storyline.... beautifully written. To be read with time and open heart
    • 5/5
      This story touched me deeply, drew emotion, and breath. Tears not born of joy or sadness. Tears of depth. Much gratitude for The Red Tent and Anita Diamant.
    • 4/5
      The Red Tent is a story of women; more specifically women who visit the Red Tent for 3 days each month during their menustral cycle. Adequately done, this book is quite predictable and a work of fiction. While it may contain Biblical characters, this is not historical fiction, a novel plain and simple.
    • 5/5
      So good! Friend recommended the book and it was worth every minute! Touches on feminism in an early biblical world.
    • 5/5
      All the stars go to Anita Diamant and her tran·scend·ent
      work of art, The Red Tent.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written, poignant, heart wrenching. A powerful retelling of biblical stories, focused on the strength and bravery of women. Incredible read.
    • 5/5
      Devastatingly heartbreaking tale.Dinah is the young daughter of Jacob. She has many aunties and together with her mother they share stories and legends and teach her the ways of womanhood under the red tent where women go once a month. But when she falls in love with a prince of a different house her father and vengeful selfish brothers will have none of it. Murder and devastation befall Dinah more times then we can count. And yet somehow she makes it through it all. Perhaps a little worse for wear and broken hearted but still in one piece. And most importantly, still remembered.I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Such amazing storytelling. This book brought me to tears numerous times, and at other times I wanted to throw the book across the room. The author writes in a way that is easy to follow but still gives you a taste of the old world and the way it was before time began as we know it. Back when women kept ancient secrets about their bodies and their gods. This book is riveting and I enjoyed it immensely. It speaks of strength and courage beyond reckoning. I would recommend this book to all women everywhere! If you are a woman you need to read this book.
    • 1/5
      I just couldn’t get into this book. I’m no prude, but really? Listening to stories of fathers touching their daughters inappropriately, or men masturbating and fantasizing, or descriptions of menstruation made me quickly lose interest. It would be different if these things added to the book in some way, but they didn’t. I’m not really sure what the writer was going for there, but it got tiresome very quickly.
    • 1/5
      Well, at only 86 pages in I took back over what I had read so far, flipped through the pages to come, and made the only slightly painful decision to not finish this novel. I hate not finishing a book; I usually feel that, if someone has dedicated that much time to get something published (something I have yet to do) I feel as if they deserve the basic respect of hearing them out to the end before I pass judgment. This book wasn't necessarily worse then any other books I have persevered through, it's just I have to come to the realization that I do not have the time to waste on books that I think are dumb.

      When I placed this book on my to-read list I had high hopes that it would be interesting; I should have known better, considering how many people compare it to In the Shadow of the Ark, a horrible book. I don't know what it was about this book, but I did like it more then In the Shadow of the Ark, but not much.

      The main thing that Anita Diamant does wrong is she does not stick to the biblical narrative; on the one hand, I probably hold a lot more reverence for this book then she does, and I can hardly expect her to respect it like I do, on the other, I felt like her deviations only subtracted from the story, rather then adding something (other then mediocrity). Right off the bat Diamant replaces the violently dysfunctional family of Jacob with a gathering of women who all sleep with the same man, and yet he satisfies them all (or we are never really made to feel otherwise), and none of them are particularly jealous (again, there are sometimes that the author hints through telling, but never shows, and thus renders these feelings moot). I fully realize that these women probably didn't expect much better growing up in actual ancient times (even if Dina's own childhood in the narrative, as far as I read, did not hint to this)but I just feel like her decision robbed the story of a lot of much needed drama.

      She also made her male characters very one dimensional; once again, the realistic fact is that a daughter would probably not know her father very well (although I am no ancient scholar). The fact that her story is about females, rendering men tertiary, also ads to her case, but in the end we are left with shell like stereotypes that are sexist.

      So, yeah; lots of potential that was ignored.
    • 4/5
      I much enjoyed reading a biblical story from a woman's point of view and learning about their day to day lives and the culture.
    • 5/5
      5***** and a &#10084What a wonderfully told story! From a relatively small reference in the Bible, Diamant weaves a historical novel that completely captivates. Dinah, sister of Joseph, daughter of Jacob and Leah, tells her tale. The story is brought to life with vivid descriptions of the hardships and pleasures of everyday life, the sorrow and despair following tragedy, the anger and fury of one betrayed, the passion and sweetness of new love, the comfort of a mother's love for her child, the enduring love of friendship among the "family" of women.
    • 2/5
      I tried, but couldn't really get into this. Thank goodness for the family tree in the front papers, because I was probably flipping back to it every second page. Readers familiar with the Old Testament probably won't have that problem. By part three I was over it, because I still couldn't remember who was married to who... I skimmed the final chapter and was left with no resonant emotion.

      However, that's I didn't read it for the biblical history. I read it because this is one of the few books whose plots revolve around menstruation and childbirth, which have got short shrift in art considering how much these things have ruled women's lives throughout history. It was interesting to see how a red tent experience might have been for women living in a completely different time and culture.

      I am left with this niggling feeling, however, that the red tent was somewhat glorified in this story as being a place where women could rest and eat sweets and be social, and this sounds divine, so it would be easy enough to walk away wishing for an earlier time... except that the red tents existed in the first place because women all throughout history have been considered dirty/evil/taboo during menstruation, and I doubt there is much glory at all to be had in enforced monthly confinement, precisely because it was enforced. The end of the red tent tradition was for Dinah a tragic loss, but was it? That's a tough one.

    • 4/5
      There are some authors who write interesting characters, but have a difficult time with the opposite gender. I found Anita Diamant to be one of them. The opening third of the book, and the main character's life with the other women in the tent was wonderfully written. The other two thirds were significantlly less interesting. After the first, the character's life came to center around men and to me, that was the point when it lost my interest. The male characters were simplistic and dull. My recommendation is to read the first third and then pass it on.
    • 4/5
      The fictionalized story of Dinah, a briefly mentioned Biblical character in the Book of Genesis; the daughter of Jacob. The book follows her life from before she was even born - beginning at the meeting of her parents - to her death.I have to admit that I didn't really like this book. It seemed to make everything sensual in an oddly portrayed way. I simply wanted to finish the book toward the second half, it felt like the author was simply trying to drag out the story.However, despite not enjoying it, I could not possibly say that this book was poorly written. Anita Diamant is a wonderful writer.The characters, especially of the four sisters, are wonderfully lifelike and interesting. Rich cultural settings and historical detail, written descriptively and eloquently.The first half of this book was much better than the first, because it was focusing mainly on the characters.Not my type of book at all - but I'm not going to even try saying it wasn't epically, brilliantly written.
    • 5/5
      Loosely based on story of Book of Genesis, told through the mouth of Dinah, daughter of Jacob. The red tent is a place where women go for childbirth, menses and illness. And where Dinah learned about life from her 4 mothers. Recorded books version excellent.
    • 4/5
      The Red Tent is a story of women; more specifically women who visit the Red Tent for 3 days each month during their menustral cycle. Adequately done, this book is quite predictable and a work of fiction. While it may contain Biblical characters, this is not historical fiction, a novel plain and simple.
    • 4/5
      The Red Tent is a story of women; more specifically women who visit the Red Tent for 3 days each month during their menustral cycle. Adequately done, this book is quite predictable and a work of fiction. While it may contain Biblical characters, this is not historical fiction, a novel plain and simple.
    • 5/5
      Remember the sister of Joseph in the book of Genesis? No? Well, I didn't either. Dinah tells us the story of her 4 mothers and her whole extended tribe, including all those brothers, who will eventually sell off her baby brother into slavery to Egypt. But this is really more about the life of all the women in her father's camp. The Red Tent is the place where they rest during their menstruation and where they recuperate from their daily toil. Here they enjoy life, tell stories and show us how how women fared in biblical times.Definitely a book for the girls. I am not sure if a man would like this? I enjoyed it a lot.
    • 1/5
      False and lewd. Had to stop listening in the 2nd chapter. Not sure why the true story was not used. Not at all like what the Bible teaches.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Historical fiction based on the biblical story of Jacob, as told through the eyes of Dinah, his youngest child and only daughter. In the Bible, Dinah has no voice, but Anita Diamant has provided a voice for her through this imaginative story of her life that offers a convincing portrait of a community of women in ancient times. The titular red tent is a place where women gather for rituals such as monthly cycles, recovery from illness, and childbirth.

      For me, this book is a story of empowerment and strength. Dinah lived in a patriarchal society and we see it through her eyes. She would not have been privy to the men’s world, so the focus is on the female relationships and the connections among the women. Fertility, midwifery and childbirth are prominently featured, and Dinah becomes a respected midwife. It effectively evoked the ambiance of an ancient culture. The writing is beautifully descriptive, and the daily lives of the characters seemed believable. This book is filled with engaging characters and multifaceted relationships. While it is based on religious text, there is little formal “religion” portrayed and I did not find it didactic. Knowledge of the biblical story is somewhat helpful, but not required. A family tree of relationships among Jacob, his four wives, and thirteen children is provided.

      Themes include storytelling, motherhood, tradition, memory, renewal, and the power of nature. Contains sex, violence (including murder and rape), and graphic descriptions of childbirth. This book helped me appreciate what life would have been like for women in those days and makes me very glad I live in the present time. Recommended to anyone interested in biblical fiction.
    • 5/5
      This really is a perfect example of HER-story vs history.I was very familiar about the biblical story of Jacob/Leah/Rachel/Zilpah/Bilhah and their sons, but not about the daughter of the family, Dinah. And man, what a doozy of a story, especially comparing how Dinah story is prefaced in biblical text as opposed to how the pivotal story of Dinah's life is fictionalized/interpreted/couched here.I loved how the family life in Jacob's encampment is detailed from Dinah's perspective (rituals, stories, rivalries) as well as how the tale of Dinah's life after leaving her family unfolds.
    • 4/5
      Originally published in 1997.An amazing novel based on Jacob's only daughter, Dinah, referenced in Genesis 34...I'm blown away how the author brought real life to the characters. This is very well written and great storytelling! I've always seen the characters in the Bible as almost perfect unblemished human beings...patient, kind, loving and always knowing and doing just what the Lord wanted them to do. But, in reality, the bit of harshness and imperfections in the character's that are well known characters of the Bible is probably more truth than not. After all, they are human beings, just like you and me. Speaking in the first person, as Dinah, herself, the author introduces so many characters into the story in such an easy fluid manner. I never once got lost and by the end of the very first chapter, I really felt like I knew the personalities of all four of Jacob's wives, who were, by the way, also his 1st cousins. Will soon watch the movie, "The Red Tent" to see how it compares to the book and will return to edit my review.UPDATE: The movie is very lacking! If I hadn't read the book first, I'm not so sure I would have understood everything in the movie.