Book Club: The Red Tent

Title: The Red Tent

Author: Anita Diamant

Year of publication: 1997

Genre: Historical Fiction

Setting: 

Premise:

The story of Dinah, a tragic character from the Bible whose great love, a prince, is killed by her brother, leaving her alone and pregnant. The novel traces her life from childhood to death, in the process examining sexual and religious practices of the day, and what it meant to be a woman.

Context:

Anita Diamant started writing The Red Tent, her first fiction work, at the age of 40. She did so in a desire to expand her horizons as a writer. 

Characters: 

• Adah
• Asher
• Benia
• Bilhah
• Dan
• Dinah
• Eliphaz
• Esau
• Gad
• Hamor
• Inna
• Isaac
• Issachar
• Jacob
• Joseph
• Judah
• Laban
• Leah
• Levi
• Meryt
• Nakht-re
• Naphtali
• Rachel
• Rebekah
• Re-mose
• Re-nefer
• Reuben
• Ruti
• Shalem
• Simeon
• Tabea
• Werenro
• Zilpah

Character Map:

Plot Diagram:

Themes/Symbolism:

First Words:

We have been lost to each other for so long.

Last Words:

Selah.

Popularity: 

Data from LibraryThing.com

Awards/Honors:

Julia Ward Howe Book Award (1998)

Book Sense Book of the Year - Adult Fiction Winner (2001)

ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound - Arts and Humanities (2009)

Memorable Quotes:

Author's Biography:

Embed from Getty Images

Literary Links:

The story of Dinah is briefly told in Genesis 34. The fictional narrative by Diamant differs from the biblical story in some details, and all other characters in the book can also be found throughout a reading of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Sandra Hack Polaski wrote Inside the Red Tent in 2006. This book serves as an annotated work delving in the context of the lives of the major female characters in the story narrated in The Red Tent.

Beyond the lines

Adaptations:

The Red Tent has been adapted as a TV miniseries which first aired in 2014 starring Minnie Driver as Leah and Rebecca Ferguson as Dinah.

Book vs. Book: 

Another atmospheric historical fiction book that focuses on mother-daughter relationships and women's perspective is The Blood of Flowers. 

Tasty Titles: 

While the women are spending their three days of rest in the red tent, there is plenty of honeyed cake to be had. When new mothers are nursing their children, there is plenty of honeyed cake to be had. Whenever there is any reason to feast, there is plenty of honeyed cake to be had. The book made me hungry for honeyed cake myself, and a recipe from Genius Kitchen, which I found at The Hungry Bookworm blog is bound to satisfy that craving.

 

Six Word Review: 

Joseph's sister's biblical retelling of womanhood

Rambling Words:

If the book inspires you to travel, there is a company called Red Tent Tours for Women that specializes in tours only for women in Israel and other countries. They state in their website that the company is nondenominational, and it is not affiliated with any organization or cause.

Dinah's story starts in Mosepotamia (modern day Iraq), but the most relevant parts of the story take place in Canaan and Egypt. After Jacob (Dinah's father) leaves Laban's encampment he settles near Shechem in Canaan. Archeologist have placed Shechem near modern day Neblus in Palestine after the discovery of the ruins of Tell Balatah. After the climactic events that take place in Shechem (no spoilers), Dinah's path leads her to Egypt, first to Thebes and finally to the Valley of the Kings.

Photo credits: 1. Author: TrickyH. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license 2. Photo by Alka Jha on Unsplash 3. Photo by Tom Podmore on Unsplash

Bookstore on Location:

Bibliotherapy: 

The Cover Story

Book Candy:

Our Review:

Discussion Questions:

(from LitLovers)

1. Read Genesis 34 and discuss how The Red Tent changes your perspective on Dinah's story and also on the story of Joseph that follows. Does The Red Tent raise questions about other women in the Bible? Does it make you want to re-read the Bible and imagine other untold stories that lay hidden between the lines?

2. Discuss the marital dynamics of Jacob's family. He has four wives; compare his relationship with each woman?

3. What do you make of the relationships among the four wives?

4. Dinah is rich in "mothers." Discuss the differences or similarities in her relationship with each woman.

5. Childbearing and childbirth are central to The Red Tent. How do the fertility childbearing and birthing practices differ from contemporary life? How are they similar? How do they compare with your own experiences as a mother or father?

6. Discuss Jacob's role as a father. Does he treat Dinah differently from his sons? Does he feel differently about her? If so, how?

7. Discuss Dinah's twelve brothers. Discuss their relationships with each other, with Dinah, and with Jacob and his four wives. Are they a close family?

8. Female relationships figure largely in The Red Tent. Discuss the importance of Inna, Tabea, Werenro, and Meryt.

9. In the novel, Rebecca is presented as an Oracle. Goddesses are venerated along with gods. What do you think of this culture, in which the Feminine has not yet been totally divorced from the Divine? How does El, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, fit into this?

10. Dinah's point of view is often one of an outsider, an observer. What effect does this have on the narrative? What effect does this have on the reader?

11. The book travels from Haran (contemporary Iraq/Syria), through Canaan and into Shechem (Israel), and into Egypt. What strikes you about the cultural differences Dinah encounters vis-a-vis food, clothing, work, and male-female relationships.

12. In The Red Tent, we see Dinah grow from childhood to old age. Discuss how she changes and matures. What lessons does she learn from life? If you had to pick a single word to describe the sum of her life, what word would you choose? How would Dinah describe her own life experience?

(Questions issued by publisher.)