The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

May 7, 2004

Location:   Marvel’s home

Members: Virginia, Françoise, Louise, Carmen, Marg, Joanne, Bea, Marvel, Gisela
The menu for the evening was St. Hubert’s chicken.
The discussion of the book was (as usual) very diverse. As we all know this group has a very difficult time staying on one topic but amazingly enough conversation always relates to the book in one way or another.
The “Red Tent” tells the little-known Biblical story of Dinah, daughter of the patriarch Jacob and his wife, Leah. Dinah is the only daughter, she has 12 brothers. At first it was difficult to determine the relationship between her and her four “mothers”. Read Chapter 34 of the Book of Genesis to hear Dinah’s tale.
When this book was first suggested most members felt that it would not be a book that they would have chosen to read because of the religious aspects of the book. As it turned out everyone enjoyed the book immensely.
The book brought back memories of time spent in convent schools and there was much discussion around the different methods that nuns had of teaching. Some had wonderful memories of certain nuns while other memories were not so great but as usual the discussions were all very interesting and enlightening!
Some comparison’s were made to DaVinci’s Code and another book that had recently come out by Tom Harper.
The book showed a wonderful camaraderie among women and the idea of a “Red Tent” was thought to be a good idea. It was a place where the sisters and other women had the opportunity to show a great deal of support for one another. It was very interesting to read about the customs at that time. The way they lived and travelled together as a community. The midwife aspects were also intriguing. It was a very different lifestyle to see the relationship that Dinah had with her son, her aunts, her mother-in-law, her brothers and the old midwife.
Anita Diamant spent a year at Harvard University researching the book, it was well written. Her writing style was very easy to read. Very glad that the book was recommended as it wouldn’t have been one that most of us would have read.
Respectfully submitted (very late) by: Marvel on August 3, 2004