The Red Tent

The Red Tent is an incredible novel that brings its readers into the life of a woman in the times of the Book of Genesis. Through the eyes of Dinah, the main character, readers are immersed in a new culture. This culture entails polygamy, Judaism, the challenges of siblings, and the troubles that come with being a woman. This incredible tale includes a multitude of different characters such as Dinah’s four mothers, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah as well as her twelve brothers and her father Jacob. Jacob has very different relationships with each of his wives as well as the different relationships he has with his sons and Dinah. This novel often discusses the role of women in this society and displays their conflicts with men and their expectations. Men are depicted as nothing more than “A nuisance…[who are] always hungry.”
Anita Diamant began writing as a journalist in Boston in 1975. She had written for many magazines and newspapers until she finally began writing about Jewish practices and community. She is known best for her five books that encompass tails of contemporary Jewish life. She mainly wrote non-fiction works until this novel which then became a New York Times best seller. This novel was by far one of her biggest successes as an author, as she depicts the role of a woman in a biblical time period. This novel continued from the United States, and was published in twenty five different foreign versions. After this novel she continued by writing another contemporary novel titled Good Harbor which illustrates the female importance for friendship.
The author writes in a manner that is truly exquisite through Dinah’s point of view. Dinah throughout the novel is often treated as an outsider. Being that she is the only girl out of thirteen kids, she is often treated differently than her twelve brothers. This plays a large role in the outsider’s perspective on the plot. Every instant is told in a way that seems almost disconnected which proves to be very effective in the situation of this novel. In the book, women have no control over their own fate, so the outsider’s perspective is very effective. As a result of the fact that women are disconnected with their future, this disconnected language illustrates this aspect of the culture perfectly
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone in their adolescent years or older. The meaning of the text would be difficult to understand for someone of a young age, but I feel that this book could be very beneficial for men and women of almost any age. Any man who is confused about the female gender would have a greater appreciation for women after reading this novel. Women, on the other hand, would be appreciative of their current rights and would feel a greater obligation to exercise those rights more frequently. This book really impacted my view on life and I believe that it not only would inform people of another culture but would show them how far we as a human race have come as it pertains to gender equality.