by Athena Garner

Created on: May 07, 2008   Last Updated: July 05, 2008

Diamant's The Red Tent brings to life the story of an obscure female character in the Bible. Dinah is the only daughter of Jacob and her twelve brothers become the founding fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. These men have many verses devoted to them and their exploits, but all we know of Dinah from the Bible is that she was a victim and her brothers avenged her bloodily. One might expect that the book would have heavy Jewish or Christian overtones due to its Biblical origin and the fact that Anita Diamant is a Jewish woman who has written several books on Jewish life. But instead she very realistically brings out the focus of these women's lives as being their family and the family gods they had always revered. Their allegiance belongs to goddesses mostly, those who watch over harvest and childbirth rather than the masculine El, the God of the Bible whom the men of the family had only worshipped for three generations.

The first half of the book is set only amongst Dinah's immediate family. This includes her father and his four wives, their children and her maternal grandfather, his wife and sons. This part of the book is charming and comforting with its depiction of the red tent and the sacred and secret life the women carry on inside. The red tent is where they retreat for three days during their monthly period to worship their goddesses and share stories and songs. But there is a turning point halfway through after which Dinah's life takes a tragic and dramatic turn. Her story is one of a young woman adapting and taking her life into her own hands, using the strength and knowledge she has gained from her mother and aunts and carrying them with her into unknown lands.

This book is strongly feminist in the best sense of the word. It gives an empowering picture of how women survive the worst things in life. After jealousies, babies born dead, rape and murders of loved ones, Dinah and the women she loves manage to continue their lives and contribute to the world through their faith and skills at midwifery. Throughout the book we are given a woman's view of Jacob's famous family, the theft of Laban's household gods, the massacre of Shechem and the story of Joseph and his place in Pharaoh's court. These insights provide us with a view of what life could have been like behind the bare facts of some of the Bible's stories. The Red Tent is a work of fiction, but it is well researched and surely some of the details Diamant provides must be very close to the events of the real Dinah's life.

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