An Amazing Read Into the Bible

I had never heard about Anita Diamant before I found her book, The Red Tent, in a box in my neighborhood. Wow!

The book, written in 1997, was her first novel, though she published non-fiction in 1985. Diamant worked as a journalist after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis.

The Red Tent tells the story of Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob. The Bible didn't really discuss many of the details of her life or other lives. I didn't know this until just now, but it was turned into a miniseries by Lifetime TV in 2014 starring Minnie Driver.

The book is broken into three parts, with its "genesis" in the stories of her mothers. She discussed Leah, here actual mother, and Leah's three sisters. I knew from religious school that Jacob had married two sisters, Leah and Rachel, but I never heard that he had fathered children with all four of the sisters.

Part two of the book tells here story. Dinah was the only daughter born to Jacob from all four women. She wasn't the last child but did have a lot of older brothers. She was very close with Joseph, who was younger and the son of Rachel. These 8 chapters tell a lot about Dinah, including her marriage to an Egyptian man. I won't ruin the story by discussing his death, but Dinah did have a son that was conceived before her husband was killed.

The third part of the book is set in Egypt, where Dinah spent most of her life. It is told in five chapters and includes a reunion with Joseph, who had been sold into slavery by his family. Diamant does a fantastic job of fulfilling what a book is supposed to do. Readers learn about Dinah, and Diamant creates a tremendous story about her. The Bible did not tell a good story, but Diamant connect parts of the Bible with her extraordinary imagination.

I discussed two authors that I thought did a fantastic job of covering the oppression that women or minorities have encountered, Gloria Steinem and Maya Angelou, writing that I am now a feminist. I believe that Diamant is very helpful in assessing several of the challenges that women faced back then.