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This is a powerful novel, which deals with the
bloody events that led to the founding of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob
has sought refuge from the anger of his brother Esau with Laban, the brother of
his mother, Rebecca. The first member of Laban's tribe that Jacob meets
is the stunningly beautiful Rachel. Laban reluctantly welcomes his kin,
and lets him stay, and promises him the hand of Rachel in return for his
labour. However, when Jacob comes to be married, he finds that Laban's
elder daughter Leah, has taken Rachel's stead. Jacob does not mind too
much, for Leah is a strong and fertile, and also very attractive, despite the
fact that her eyes are each different colours. Rachel then
becomes jealous of their union, but it's her own fault really - she was scared
of the act of consummation on her wedding night, and begged Leah to take
her place. Having just reached puberty, she is still very unsure of
her body and her sexuality, and so has to go to the local midwife to be educated
in the act of sex. Jacob pretends that he is angry that Laban has
tricked him, and demands Rachel's hand also, having done his duty by honouring
Leah. Laban, mystified, and not a little drunk, agrees. This is the
story that is passed down to Dinah, Jacob's only daughter, by her mothers (for
by the time she is conceived, Jacob has also wed Bilhah and Zilpah).
Since Dinah is the long sought for daughter after the bearing of so many sons
to Jacob, her four mothers take her to heart, and allow her to enter into the
Red Tent with them. Rachel's resentment of Dinah's mother Leah is only
partially resolved after she has borne Jacob a son, Joseph.
Although the story of Jacob and his
sons is familiar from the Bible, Anita Diamant has presented this story in a
very different way. Most notable is the manner in which the God of Jacob,
Isaac, and Abraham is presented: as being just one god amongst many, and a fit
enough consort for the Queen of Heaven, rather than just a single old man with
a white beard. Most of the other gods involved would appear to
be either Sumerian or Egyptian, and were gods that were genuinely worshipped at
the time (Anita Diamant has done her research well). There would appear
to be a division between the way that women and men worship gods here: although
Jacob does cry out the names of other gods when suffering from a sick stomach,
he does increasingly come to rely on the God of Isaac his father, and
Abraham his grandfather. The women worship a whole variety of gods,
such as the god of beer, and the goddess of victory and fertility.
Laban also has a whole teraphim of little gods, until they are famously
stolen from him by Rachel, so that her detested father may be cursed by their
absence. Leah, for her part, declares that they do not need gods, only
each other, but even she upholds the traditions of the red tent, to which
the women retreat whilst menstruating. Having departed from Laban, Jacob
and his family (along with Laban's household gods), set out and make their way
in the world. Leah and her sisters find that the traditions of the red
tent are not upheld by the women of the different tribes that their sons
have married into, and the integrity of the red tent itself becomes threatened.
What does not seem to be important
here is what gods are worshipped, or how many, but that the roles of men
and women are changing. There have previously been matriarchs as powerful
as the patriarchs - Sarah, wife of Abraham, and Rebecca, wife of Isaac.
Yet Leah and Rachel are not given as much prominence in Jacob's tribe. As
Jacob fearfully makes his way to meet his brother Esau, there is also the
prospect of meeting the matriarch Rebecca. Yet Dinah's first meeting with
Rebecca at Mamre does not go well, when Rebecca spurns Dinah's friend Tabea, a
daughter of Esau, for what would appear to be little reason. To her
horror, Dinah hears that Rebecca has requested that she stay with her at
Mamre for three months. Although Dinah can never really get over her
hatred of Rebecca for her cruel action, she does at least begin to respect the
prophet who attends to all who visit her. Leah tries to explain Rebecca's
actions - that Rebecca acts the way she does to Tabea because the traditions of
women are under the threat of dying out. Not that the lot of women, such
as Laban's slave wife Ruti, is all that fantastic. But with the loss of
their traditions, the whole identity of women seems to diminish. Although
the four wives of Jacob add to his richness with their skills, there is a
danger that those women who are not enslaved, will be even more reduced in
their roles as they become mere bargaining chips in transactions amongst men.
Rebecca sadly concludes that Dinah will not be her heir at
Mamre. Jacob, shamed to have discovered that Rachel did actually
steal Laban's teraphim, destroys these representations of household gods that
have been used to welcome Dinah into adulthood. And from there, things do
really start to go wrong. But is this due to a curse of their gods, or
because Jacob has grown suspicious of his wives and their ways, and now relies
instead on his avaricious sons Simon and Levi for advice?
There are some differences from the
Biblical account of the same events. In the Bible, Laban welcomes Jacob
with open arms. Jacob also wrestles with the Lord God himself before
reuniting with Esau, but Anita Diamant suggests that his broken leg and
fever were caused by an encounter with a wild boar instead (although, since
Dinah is accompanied with Joseph when she encounters the boar, we are never
quite certain that it is real, since Joseph has a tendency of seeing visions,
just like his father). In the Bible, it's Jacob who gives Joseph his
famous technicolour dreamcoat, but in The Red Tent, Rachel is the more likely
tailor of this garment that Joseph's brothers sneer at. There is not much
mention of a famine in Egypt, even although Zafenat Paneh-ah is in power
there. A few of Jacob's sons would have appeared to have died earlier
than they do in the Bible, and Judah and Reuben are not as squeaky clean in the
Bible as Anita Diamant presents them. And the last mention of Dinah in
the Bible is "Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?",
which does not forebode well... Anita Diamant accounts for these differences by
relating that these are the forms of the tales as carried down by the women,
whilst Jacob's account of the same events is quite different.
Since Jacob has only the one daughter, it would not appear that the women's
stories will survive, but the story of Dinah is too terrible to be forgotten...
Anita Diamant has successfully brought
the Biblical world and its characters to life, whilst not following strict
obeisance to scripture and the word of God. Some of the most compelling
passages are the birth scenes: like Rachel before her, Dinah becomes a
successful and much sought-after midwife, and Diamant has researched the herbs
and the methods they would have used at that time very well. There is
only one irritation - at several points in the novel, Diamant has Dinah's neck
tickled by some member of her family, who are not actually there when she turns
around, but I suppose that could be a reminder that she is soon to be separated
from them. This is most of all, a highly compassionate novel - when Dinah
leaves us, her audience, we are truly sorry to see her go, and that it a
sign that Diamant has created a vibrant and powerful character. The minor
characters also make a great impact - although her scenes are few, if ever
there is a film of The Red Tent, I would suggest that the role of
Werenro be played by Julia Roberts. If you know the Biblical story
well, then you will know that there are quite a few horrors in store for our
Dinah, and Anita Diamant has handled these well. But as equally important
as the horrors are the delights of this book, and they are as numerous as
the tribe of Israel of which they tell.
Authortrek rating: 10/10
Kevin Patrick Mahoney
|
Visit
our Anita Diamant
page for Anita Diamant biography, Anita Diamant bibliography, Anita
Diamant interviews, and “The Red Tent” reading guide |
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