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A review by demottar
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
3.0
This book had so much potential and I feel like Diamant really failed to tap into that. A few things just did not work for me at all:
1. There was little to no struggle with Diety from the main characters - a major part of the Jewish ancestry and history is this back and forth between practicing pagan/polytheistic worship and worship of the Judeo-Christian God. I just don't feel like this played a big enough part in the beginning of the novel. Especially where Jacob is introducing a new religion and barely anyone says/thinks anything of it, and how Jacob himself doesn't really fight against the old religion when his wives and daughters are practicing it right beneath his nose. I found this so inaccurate and difficult to believe. To me, it discredited the story overall.
2. While this novel is a part of the Midrash tradition, I felt like Diamant changed enough significant detail from the history, that she did a disservice to her story. I think I would have appreciated her work more if she had been more faithful to scriptural detail.
3. I didn't buy that anyone actually had any kind of love for anyone else in the novel. Who cares that Joseph was sold into Egypt, when I don't have any reason to believe that his dad cares at all?Additionally, while I appreciate a good feminist novel, why are all of the male characters (except for Dinah's husbands) so disleakable and one-dimensional? If this was an effort to illuminate the female characters more, it wasn't a very good one.
Overall, I did enjoy the novel, but I didn't love it and I don't think I'll read it again. There were no big moments for me, and Diamant's writing is only OK - every time she wrote about romantic love or sex, I rolled my eyes. Too cheesy for me.
1. There was little to no struggle with Diety from the main characters - a major part of the Jewish ancestry and history is this back and forth between practicing pagan/polytheistic worship and worship of the Judeo-Christian God. I just don't feel like this played a big enough part in the beginning of the novel. Especially where Jacob is introducing a new religion and barely anyone says/thinks anything of it, and how Jacob himself doesn't really fight against the old religion when his wives and daughters are practicing it right beneath his nose. I found this so inaccurate and difficult to believe. To me, it discredited the story overall.
2. While this novel is a part of the Midrash tradition, I felt like Diamant changed enough significant detail from the history, that she did a disservice to her story. I think I would have appreciated her work more if she had been more faithful to scriptural detail.
3. I didn't buy that anyone actually had any kind of love for anyone else in the novel. Who cares that Joseph was sold into Egypt, when I don't have any reason to believe that his dad cares at all?Additionally, while I appreciate a good feminist novel, why are all of the male characters (except for Dinah's husbands) so disleakable and one-dimensional? If this was an effort to illuminate the female characters more, it wasn't a very good one.
Overall, I did enjoy the novel, but I didn't love it and I don't think I'll read it again. There were no big moments for me, and Diamant's writing is only OK - every time she wrote about romantic love or sex, I rolled my eyes. Too cheesy for me.