The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

In the immortal words of my friend Sondra.... I have two words for you. Amazing! (Yes, I know that is only one word and that's the point.)

I'm only 1/3 of the way through and it is already a definite must read (in my opinion) and an add to my favorite books EVER! Ever!


Review from Library Journal:
Skillfully interweaving biblical tales with events and characters of her own invention, Diamant's sweeping first novel re-creates the life of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, from her birth and happy childhood in Mesopotamia through her years in Canaan and death in Egypt. When Dinah reaches puberty and enters the Red Tent (the place women visit to give birth or have their monthly periods), her mother and Jacob's three other wives initiate her into the religious and sexual practices of the tribe. Diamant sympathetically describes Dinah's doomed relationship with Shalem, son of a ruler of Shechem, and his brutal death at the hands of her brothers. Following the events in Canaan, a pregnant Dinah travels to Egypt, where she becomes a noted midwife. Diamant has written a thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating portrait of a fascinating woman and the life she might have lived.

June 4, 2006 - I'm finished and it was an amazingly beautiful story. I couldn't put the final 1/3 of it down today. There were many points in the story where I felt connected with Dinah, a few of the lines quoted here:

"It amazes me to think of all that happened in the space of a silent breath or two."

"Just as there is no warning for childbirth, there is no preparation for the sight of a first child.... There should be a song for women to sing at this moment, or a prayer to recite. But perhaps there is none because there are no words strong enough to name that moment. Like every mother since the first mother, I was overcome and bereft, exalted and ravaged. I had crossed over from girlhood."