In Progress: The Red Tent (Continued)

Image courtesy of Barnes and Noble

I've managed to make it midway through The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.  So far, I'm enjoying the journey.  I love the story that Dinah has to tell; more accurately, I love the way in which she tells it.  Dinah has such a unique perspective, an almost poetic way of telling her story that's absolutely enchanting.

For instance, I love her descriptions of her mother, Leah:  "Leah's scent was no mystery.  She smelled of the yeast she handled daily, brewing and baking.  She reeked of bread and comfort..."  Likewise, her description of Rachel is enchanting:  "Rachel smelled like water.  Really!  Wherever my aunt walked, there was the scent of fresh water.  It was an impossible smell, green and delightful and in those dusty hills the smell of life and wealth."

And, if this makes sense, I like how Diamant manages to make Dinah's analogies realistic, reasonable for its context in the ancient world.  For example, when Dinah describes Bilhah as being good - "good the way milk is good, the way rain is good" - her description makes perfect sense.  Both milk and water were necessary for survival in such a harsh landscape, thus they were good.

Furthermore, I like the way that Dinah explains their beliefs.  Their world is one of gods and spirits and demons, so it's intriguing to see the ways in which Dinah describes her mothers' religious beliefs and her own, as they're shaped by the singular god of Jacob's tribe - El, Jehovah, God - and the multitude of gods of her mothers' tribe.

Their time was not as it is now, in which we have explanations for diseases, mathematics and physics to explain natural phenomenon.  So it's interesting to see how their world works and how they worship their gods, looking to them for explanations.  There are so many cultures and ideals clashing, crashing together to form something entirely unique to Dinah.

And that's what I like about Dinah, I think.  I like that Diamant shapes her character to the fullest extent, taking into consideration her heritage and her upbringing and her environment.  Dinah is truly given a life of her own within the pages of The Red Tent.

Oh, and I found a wonderful passage in my reading:

"The women sang like birds, only more sweetly.  They sounded like the wind in the trees, but louder.  Their voices were like the rush of the river's water, but with meaning.  Then their words cease and they began to sing with sound that meant nothing at all, yet gave new voice to joy, to pleasure, to longing, to peace."

Now, after I started reading The Red Tent, I did a little research on its reception in the literary community.  Diamant's novel has received some very high praise and, nearly 18 years later, has managed to maintain a respectable 4 of 5 stars on most websites which use that sort of rating (Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc.).  However, I've stumbled across some comments that denounce it for its imperfections and question its accuracy.

The Red Tent is a work of fiction.  It's based on biblical characters about whom we know very little, thus it's hard to say it would be completely accurate.  We have no way of knowing how these people truly lived or worked or worshiped.  We can only guess - and, personally, I think that Diamant does a spectacular job of guessing.

As for the biblical integrity of The Red Tent, I can't really speak to that either, but I feel that Diamant does a decent job of paralleling the story in Genesis.  Complaints that Diamant simply tried to vilify individuals in the Bible, attempted to debase them, are weak at best.

For instance, Jacob, regardless of his exalted position in the Bible, had four wives and he begot several children (twelve, to be precise).  More to the point, I think it important to remember that he's only human.  You can't tell me he didn't have some kind of carnal desires.  Likewise, the Bible is filled with indiscretions.  You don't even have to look out of the first book of the Bible to find that Lot, even unintentionally, impregnates his daughters (Genesis 19), or Tamar tricks her father-in-law into having sex with her (Genesis 38).

The list goes on.

If you're going to say the Bible doesn't include sex and debauchery, murderers and liars and thieves, quintessential sin, you obviously haven't read very far or you've found a sanitized version.  The Bible doesn't conceal humankind's faults.  There's no two ways about it, people are sinners and they are going to do bad things.

Diamant, I think, just isn't afraid to point it out.