The Red Tent review

The Red Tent is celebrated it's 10th Anniversary this year, yet I just got around to actually reading it. It was well worth the wait. Anita Diamant takes a biblical character, Dinah, who is mentioned very briefly in Genesis, and weaves a tale of what her life might have been like. We meet Jacob, his four wives and twelve sons. We discover with Dinah how inconsequential she is in the scheme of her father's life and beliefs. We learn what the red tent means to the lives of the women of Jacob's (and other's) tribe. And sadly, we see how changing beliefs and attitudes on the part of the men at that time lead to the eventual disappearance of the red tent and all that it meant to womanhood.

The first few chapters were a bit confusing to me as I tried to follow the genealogy presented. Thankfully Diamant includes a page of family trees, to which I was continually turning back to consult. But after those first few introductory chapters, once Dinah's story really began, this was a book that I could not put down. I found the culture, the people and the settings all fascinating. The only addition I would have like to have seen was a geographical map so we could follow Dinah's travels over her lifetime.

I found myself frequently flipping to Diamant's biography on the back cover, almost in disbelief as I read The Red Tent. Diamant is the author of many books on contemporary Jewish life and I found it surprising that she was able to present a Biblical story from such a non-biblical viewpoint. Or maybe not exactly non-biblical, but non-conventional. A story that revolved around the women of that time period rather than the men and a story that did not always present the biblical figures in the best of light. I have to wonder if she came under some criticism from the ultra-conservative of her faith.

On another note, I will be picking Penelope up this afternoon. Hopefully she'll drive fine and we will be back to have two vehicles!!!

The Dive From Clausen's Pier review

As I mentioned yesterday, I first heard of Ann Packer a couple of weeks ago on NPR. She was being interviewed about her newest book, Songs Without Words. Since I'm too cheap right now to go out and buy her new book, I instead added it to my wish list on PaperbackSwap.com and then ordered one of her older novels, The Dive From Clausen's Pier.

As the title might suggest, a diving accident is the beginning plot element around which the rest of the novel is written. Packer gives us a cast of characters that are well developed and believable. As I was reading The Dive From Clausen's Pier, the characters became almost more real to me than those around me in real life. I cared about how they were reacting to the events in their lives, worried about the directions in which they were headed, was saddened by changes in their life-long friendships, and rooted for them to find their way back to some sense of normalcy and acceptance.

Best of all, Packer gave an ending that was believable and not all neatly tidied up. I usually like nice neat endings, but Packer wrote an ending that was not what I expected, having the main character make a choice that seemed almost disappointing in the short run, but infinitely more realistic. Based upon my enjoyment of The Dive From Clausen's Pier, I am eagerly awaiting Songs Without Words. I look forward to richly developed characters and believable situations in which the characters must work through to some new self-awareness.

The Historian book review

I have never read Dracula or any Ann Rice novels, much to my daughter's great dismay. Whatever knowledge I have of Dracula's story probably comes from some Saturday afternoon "Monster Movie Matinee" television version that I watched as a child. Vampire lore has just never really appealed to me. But something about the blurb on the back cover of The Historian (by Elizabeth Kostova) intrigued me, even though the story revolves around the search for Dracula. Maybe it was the mention of the fifteenth-century, a fascinating period in European history. Maybe it was the words "dusty libraries" and "capitals of Eastern Europe" that appealed to my love of books and travel. Whatever it was, I am very glad I picked up Kostova's book!

Kostova writes with an evocative voice, describing people and places with a surety that leads the reader to believe she is relating actual experiences from her own past. The story intertwines three different searches for Dracula and missing friends and/or family members spanning sixty years. Each search is dependent upon the knowledge acquired from the previous search and at times it does become confusing deciphering which search one is reading about and in which time period. As search builds upon search, ultimately the reader discovers that Dracula is not the only quest, but also Kostova's mother, whom she had thought was long dead and whom is now feared to be among Dracula's undead.

The pace of The Historian seemed slow to begin with, but by the last third of the book I only wanted to keep reading until I discovered the ending. I found the writing wonderfully detailed and rich, the historical settings compelling, and the Middle Ages history fascinating, even if it did pertain to Dracula! As a first novel, Elizabeth Kostova has set the bar high and I eagerly anticipate reading her next book.