The Red Tent

It clearly helps to believe in G*d, and to have read the Bible, to suspend disbelief and live in this fully-realized story of Rebecca, Sarah, Rachel, and Leah, from Dinah’s viewpoint. And to have a mental imprint of the terrain of modern and ancient Israel and the rest of the Middle East. The plausible story moves over terrain lately in the news, as it always has been in the news, since before the time of the Bible. Seculars who aren’t feminists or interested in the relationships of men and women in a patriarchal society might find it unconvincing, possibly even "disgusting" as one Amazon reviewer put it, although that seems like an extreme reaction. If anything Diamant is delicate in her descriptions of daily life and love, and love wins out.