The Red Tent by Anita Diaman

I don't typically read books like this, but this book came highly recommended to me so I had to check it out.

(I haven't read either of these books in a while, so I'm leaning heavily on other book reviews that I've just read to refresh my memory.)

Just to clear the air, the Red Tent was used back in the olden days by ladies when they were having their time of the month and where they went to have babies. So there was lots of lady time going on in that tent.



The story centers around Dinah, who is briefly mentioned in Genesis (Bible). She is the only daughter of Jacob and Leah. Jacob also has 3 other wives (Rachel, Zilhah, Bilhah). Once Dinah becomes a "woman" she enters the Red Tent and learns more about each of her mothers. The book is essentially Dinah telling us the stories of each of these women and the sisterhood they formed as they were in the Red Tent.

The most interesting part of this book is that we learn about how women lived over 4,000 years ago. Most of what I know from that era is very religion based and from a male point of view. This is an interesting spin on what happened during that time, as told by a woman's POV. It's also worth noting that this is not an overtly Christian book. There are mentions of God simply as a reference point, but the book does not hit you over the head with a BELIEVE THIS! message (which I appreciate).

Also, I remember this book being a very quick, engaging read. It was the kind of book that sucked you in and you wanted to find out what happened next. And I obviously liked it enough that I had to find a copy for my personal bookshelf.

Rank: A

Sidenote: This is not considered nonfiction and is loosely based on the story of Dinah.

Sidenote 2: The author has another novel out that I've had on my list of books to read for a long time.
Day After Night is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisoners from the Atlit internment camp, a prison for "illegal" immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp with profoundly different stories.