So many congregants and residents of Yehupitz have asked me what I think of the "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant that I felt a responsibility to read the book in order to give them a real appraisal. Yehupitz Public Library had a copy.
Having read fifty pages so far, I can make the following statement:
If you are interested in reading a work of fiction, then that is what the Red Tent is. It's an easy read. Interesting things happen to the characters. Diamant has a good imagination and can weave a story pleasantly enough.
If you are interested in discovering new layers of understanding about the lives of the Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs, stay away from this book like it is the plague. I assumed I would read a story that dealt with the Jacob, wives and Dina from the Bible, with some embellishment. The truth is that Diamant wrote a novel about some shepherd's family of 4000 years ago and gave her characters familiar names from the Bible.
To consider this book new-age "Midrash" or some sort of innovative interpretation of the Book of Genesis on any level, serious or comedic, is not only a religious crime, but a literary crime as well.
Posted by Yehupitz at December 9, 2004 12:15 AMI thought it was a lousy read.
Posted by: Luke Ford at December 12, 2004 12:57 AM