title: The Red Tent
author/editor: Anita Diamant
reviewed by: Frances
THE RED TENT
In this book by Anita Diamant, the first sentence reads," We have been lost to each other for so long." This is the voice of Dinah, only daughter of Biblical Jacob, son of Isaac who was nearly sacrificed by his own father to the Hebrew god, El (Shadiah.).
Dinah is talking to us, her sisters. She goes on, "This is not your fault or mine. The chain connecting mother to daughter was broken and the word passed to the keeping of men, who had no ways of knowing."
Somehow, these few words spoke to me, saying again, what I have known for over ten years: I have been lost.
When I was younger, I blamed my mother. I'd bare my teeth and spit, "She lied to me!" And she did. She consciously lied to me about her life and the nature of women, but she unconsciously lied to me, too.
Consciously, she lied to me about herself. She told me stories she wished were true about herself-- a far cry from reality. Perhaps it frightened her to see I wanted more than anything to be like my capable, beautiful, intelligent and much-sought- after mother. Mother probably hoped I would grow up to be like the woman in her story - not her-- and thus avoid the pain of her real life.
The unconscious lies Mother told are explained in Dinah's next sentence," This is not your fault or mine…" My mother did not know the truth…" nor, did my mother, her mother, or her mother's mother. It is no one's fault. It is simply the way our Judeo-Christian culture evolved.
This book will widen a reader's perception of how-things-once-were and how women's lives possibly evolved. It will also help some readers recognize new aspects of themselves as women.
Frances adds, "Anita Diamant wrote five previous books about Jewish women. In addition, she was a visiting scholar in the Dept. of Women's Studies at Brandeis University."