In Progress: The Red Tent

Image courtesy of

www.barnesandnoble.com

I recently picked up a book called The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.  I found a used copy for a bargain after I saw commercials for a serialized television show on Lifetime, a short series by the same name.  I was intrigued, of course, so I thought, "Why not?"

Turns out, I found an unexpected gem.

So far, I've only managed to slip into the first couple of chapters, in which Dinah tells the stories of her mothers, the wives of Jacob, but I have enjoyed this book immensely.  I like the depth and the detail of it, the way it reaches into the past to bring forth a story that I admit, I hadn't realized existed.  It's a riveting story.

And Diamant has given Dinah such a unique voice.  She is a daughter, a mother, a midwife, a caretaker, and a storyteller, and I find that in her is some ancient female wisdom, some link to a history that is sometimes overlooked and often forgotten.  She brings memories back from the brink, gives them life again.  "It is terrible how much as been forgotten, which is why, I suppose, remembering seems a holy thing."

So much of the Old Testament is patriarchal.  Sons become fathers who beget more sons, and so on and so forth in an unbroken line.  Women, however, are fewer and farther in between these great men who appear in the Bible.  I'm not saying there aren't great women, but so many are the mothers or lovers of great men, rather than individuals in their own right.

Dinah holds in her a link from mother to daughter and beyond, a record-keeping of female knowledge and trust and secrets.  From the beginning, her story seems important - feels important, regardless that it's a work of fiction.  She's a storyteller who is ready to lay her life out before you:

"I am so grateful that you have come.  I will pour out everything inside me so you may leave this table satisfied and fortified.  Blessings on your eyes.  Blessings on your children.  Blessings on the ground beneath you.  My heart is a ladle of sweet water, brimming over."

Confidentially, I love it already.