February 2014 Book Club "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamont

Hi Everyone,

The book club meeting for The Red Tent was a month ago, so this update is way overdue. In fact, last week we met to discuss the book The Boy Who Met Jesus! Barb K., Ginnie, Jody, Lori, and I attended the meeting to discuss Immaculee Ilibagiza’s story of Segatashya of Kibeho; and in February Cheryl, Ginnie, Lori, Barb K., and I attended the meeting to discuss Anita Diamant’s epic novel. Both book clubs were held at Panera in Butler.

The Red Tent is built around the first book of the Bible, Genesis Chapter 34. The story Diamant writes hearkens on the Bible’s original retelling of Jacob’s family, but delivers a story that reads like one of MGM’s great epic Biblical films. The story is narrated from Dinah’s point of view, the daughter of Jacob and Leah (sister to Rachel, Jacob’s first wife), and she begins her story from her mother’s womb. This was an ingenious decision on the author’s part as it offers the reader the opportunity to learn the dynamics of Dinah’s legacy, her family history and culture. 

Living in Biblical times was hard for women: one, women had no rights; two, women had to share a husband; and three, women were judged by their cooking skills. For the latter, I would have most likely been stoned or banished.  However, I might have survived on my story telling skills, or my ability to prophesize, so I probably would have been a major success inside the Red Tent. It was the place to go during menstrual periods, so I definitely would have spent most of my time there. Dinah, our narrator loved the Red Tent. She, her mother, and her aunts all gathered together in it during their simultaneous menstruations which occurred under the same phase of the moon. In the Red Tent, they not only celebrated every lunar cycle by worshipping their pagan gods and goddesses; but they also enjoyed a reprieve from hard work and other “womanly” duties, LOL, no bedding down with Jacob!

Dinah lived an isolated life in the grazing fields belonging to Laban her heartless grandfather with the Red Tent at the center. This life of innocence came to an end when her father Jacob moved their clan away from his aging father-in-law’s iniquitous authority. It was in the new land where Dinah came into her womanhood and is indoctrinated fully into the ceremonies of the Red Tent. Shortly after, she visits the city of Shechem with her midwife aunt to attend a mother’s birthing (Dinah herself being taught the ways of healing), and there she catches the eye of a Hivite prince named Shalem. Dinah’s life turns from carefee to tragic within days after her uncle’s slaughter the man she loves as well as all of the men of Shechem who were recently castrated as part of the dowry agreement between Dinah and Shalem’s fathers. In her grief, she flees her parents home to the care of her would be mother-in-law, Re-nefer, who realizes at once that Dinah is carrying her dead son’s child in her womb. Re-nefer takes Dinah after the carnage along with her and seeks refuge in the home of her wealthy brother Nakht-re in the country of Egypt. There Dinah gives birth to her son, Re-mose, under the strict edict that she never divulges her identity to Re-nefer’s people. Dinah is given the privilege to live in the house, watch her son grow, and share in the child’s nursing; so like any mother wanting the best for her child, she dutifully abides by Re-nefer’s stringent demands.

Nakht-re’s home in Egypt is a beautiful place, and Dinah takes great solace in its peaceful gardens. It is in the garden where she watches her son grow into a young man. Her life’s joy becomes her son. For me, one of the most poignant passages of the book takes place in the garden. Dinah says sadly, “I would have stayed forever within the garden of Re-mose’s childhood, but time is a mother’s enemy. My baby was gone before I knew it.” I always say, when I die, I hope that in heaven I can spend my eternity with my children cradled in my arms, rocking and singing to them. Like Dinah, I felt time robbing me of my babies. So quickly they are gone.  In one passage Dinah watches as Re-mose, wide eyed and animated with excitement, prepares to leave on his first long journey into the world. Dinah looks on, as a mother does, holding back the tears, “I watched the preparations from the bottom of a dark well. If I tried to speak to my son, my eyes overflowed and my throat closed.” How many times have I felt that dark well, felt my own eyes brimming with tears, constricting my body of full blown sobs before and after departures. The biggest secret of parenting is the pain of them leaving. All of the hype of giving birth is so euphoric. As a young mother, I was elated and lived on a kind of cloud nine existence, for many years the perfect family. Then the days came for each of my children to move away. Like Dinah, “I watched them leave the house … and finally wept until I was empty.” Our children, as Dinah recalls, were to us “golden.”

With our children gone, we are left with shadows. They peer at us from behind picture frames and they creep around us as we dust unused furniture. The smells change and rooms become larger as we store away their unused belongings “like treasure chests of gold.”  In our houses, as in Dinah’s garden, we wait for news, anything, to stay connected to them. Although busy with daily duties, we anticipate being needed by our children once more. Dinah realizes, ultimately, like all of us, that we cannot turn-back time. After Re-mose returns home for a visit following many years abroad, she notes, he is different; he is not the boy she raised in the garden. Dinah has no words to express her emptiness, and says only to her son, “I wish you happiness, a kind wife, and many children. I am proud of you, and proud to be your mother.” She never mentioned how much she missed him or how he had “taken the light from her life” when he left.

When Dinah is once again called upon for her talents as a midwife accompanying her friend Meryt on her duties assisting births all over Egypt, she is able to find some fulfillment in her life once again. Eventually, Dinah leaves the garden and Egypt with Meryt to live with Meryt’s sons a Baker in the Valley of the Kings. With this closure, Dinah is able to move on to discover her own happiness and even passion once again with a widowed carpenter named Benia.

Dinah tells her story even into death. Her regret is that she is remembered in the Bible only for her tragedy.  In her final reflection she wisely states, “If you want to understand any woman you must first ask about her mother and then listen carefully. Stories about food show a strong connection. Wistful silences demonstrate unfinished business. The more a daughter knows the details of her mother’s life – without flinching or whining – the stronger the daughter.” Dinah wants to be remembered for the women who raised her in the Red Tent, Leah, her birth mother, and Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilnah, her aunts. All of these women and the women who raised them, and still, the women who raised them, and on and on, live in her heart and in her soul. Generations upon generations of mothers are her story.

Our book club was unified in our collective response to The Red Tent. I think it is safe to award it three out of three stars on our blog, and place it on the list as one of Butler Women of Wisdom’s all time favorites! I can’t wait for the movie!

Our next meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 22, Earth Day, when we will discuss Sue Monk Kidd’s book The Invention of Wings. Join us at 6:00 PM at Natilie’s Pizzeria in downtown Butler to not only share our analysis of Kidd’s novel but to welcome Becky home from Florida and Cheryl back from Hawaii! Before then, I hope to send a more timely response to all of you on the book The Boy Who Met Jesus. Be expecting another email soon and hope to see you all on April 22!

Yours in Reading,

Tammy