The Red Tent Redux

I commented on the novel The Red Tent here, but since then I've had the good sense to actually read the whole novel in order to draw conclusions.

If, as my copy of the book states, this novel presents a new view of women in biblical times, I guess I'll assume that it's a new view based on historical evidence of some kind.  Or, is it just a new view as in a made-up view loosely based on some historical evidence.  I don't know.  But having a tendency toward the literal and the practical, I can get myself hung up on questions like 'Could this really have happened?' or 'Was there actually a tent that was red?'  Thus, I felt unsettled reading about the wonderfully supportive bonding between all the women in Jacob's tribe. Were women of that time really so dedicated to celebrating their femininity, their fertility, their womanhood and  lavishing attentions on one another when they gave birth or started to menstruate?   Or, is this  21st century A.D. feminism overlaid on second millenium B.C. women.  

I also found the injection of romantic love into the picture a little disconcerting.  In the novel, Shechem and Dinah are a case of a head-over-heels-nothing-can-stop-us-now kind of romance.  All rose petals and gardenias, dreamy and lush, but why?  True, the account of their liaison or marriage in Genesis is ambiguous; Shechem does insist that he wants to marry Dinah which is in part I guess what makes the account of Dinah intriguing for a novelist to speculate upon.  But. . . .

There's more 21st century-style romance when Dinah re-marries later on. She finds the perfect guy in Benia the carpenter!  Benia has a sense of humor, he's sensitive, he loves Dinah, they have a wonderful sex life and Dinah is completely fulfilled as a woman. And it's 3,000 years ago in the Middle East. 

Rebekah is given a role in the novel that she doesn't have in the Bible.  The author makes her into a kind of elder stateswoman,  a seer and/or healer.  Again, I'll assume this is a role  that might have accrued to a woman of Rebekah's status.  Then again, perhaps there's no historical accuracy here but just the author's fantasy.  I don't know.  I did poke around and look for interviews with the author and some reviews of the book.

In the final analysis, I guess this type of novel just isn't my cup of tea.