Shannan's Review of "The Red Tent"

This was our book club book for this month. I originally wasn't going to read it because of some reviews from other people, but then some other people told me that it was okay, as long as you get through the beginning. Let's just say, it wasn't my favorite.

This book is a fictional account of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob in the Old Testament. It is written from her perspective and the author uses the Bible lightly as an outline for the story. That is one of the things that bothered me about the book. The way she portrays some of the people, especially the prophets like Jacob and Joseph were not accurate at all, at least the way that I have always thought of them. Because Dinah is telling the story, you never seem to get a very good idea of what kind of person she is. You never read a description of her or get a sense of her personality. Because of this, I never really felt a connection with her.

The Red Tent is a place where all the women in the camp spend their periods together, away from the men. The book focuses a lot on cycles and women giving birth. It reminded me a little of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan with the separation of women and men and the bonds the women form together.

I would only give this book 2 stars. My interest died out at the end. The author is a proclaimed feminist and seemed like a manhater to me. I didn't care for her depictions of a lot of the characters. Although I do have to say that after I went back and read some of the chapters in the Bible, I was amazed that some of the things she had written were actually true and really did happen. So, there you go! :)