"I actually chose The Red Tent because of the controversy it generated when it was voted down in a book group I joined six years ago. A few people weren't interested in reading it 'cause it had something to do with religion. Then I came across it like at a library book sale, and I was that much more curious what it was really about.
The book The Red Tent by Anita Diamond is really the filling in the lines in the story of what the wives and daughters of Jacob, what their lives would have been like if we could have seen it thousands of years ago. I loved how vivid it was, how realistically it just brought to life every detail of living in that Biblical age. It was a family saga.
I think if you like Latin American authors like Gabrielle Garcia-Marquez or Isabel Allende who kind of follow several generations in one family and create this whole like, I don't know,following of the talents and the flaws through generation after generation, it's very kind of dramatic like that. It's probably gonna appeal more to women then men 'cause it focuses more on the unseen lives of women. At times, there's more than necessary mention of people's menstrual cycles, but I think if you're a woman, you can tolerate that easier than a male reader. I think maybe some male readers would have a hard time swallowing that. It's really following how women had sort of their own separate culture, and even in these times that we thought were monotheistic you know that, what's his name, Jacob followed one God; yet these women were still like praying to their moon goddesses and the water goddesses and were having this whole subculture that managed to survive and thrived. The Red Tent by Anita Diamond would get five stars from me."
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