Book Challenge Update: Senior-itis isnt just for Seniors

So.... hi there. It's been awhile. Amidst changing jobs, a potential move, and a quarter-life crisis (don't worry, I've had, like, five of these. I know what to do.) the book challenge went kerplunk into the bucket of things I didn't get to. And while I didn't finish "The Red Tent" I did read a lot of other books.

First, thoughts on "The Red Tent":

One of the things that I enjoyed from what I read of "The Red Tent", was that it focused on giving women agency. "Agency" is one of my favorite words to use in regards to feminism. To me, it means power. It means being in charge of one's direction in life. It means having a voice. "The Red Tent" certainly celebrates giving women agency by giving a voice to one of the women in the the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh according to Wikipedia) in the Book of Genesis. The traditional story focuses on the rape of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah. "The Red Tent", however, let's Dinah tell her own story, a story that has been traditionally told through the voices of men. It also celebrates the communities that women form through sisterhood, motherhood, and friendship.

The lyricism of the text follows that of a religious text, or a story your grandmother might tell in order to impart some wisdom. And that was one of the things that I disliked about the book. While the story and narration paralleled the biblical story (which makes sense), it is so obviously crafted and aware of it's own device of imparting a story that I found it hard to connect to the characters. The writing seemed almost overworked to me in a way that prevented me from sitting back and letting the story speak for itself. The writer's hand was always in the foreground. Again, I didn't finish the book so maybe this impression would have gone away as Dinah's story progressed.  I think that this book would interest anyone who is interested in feminism  or interested in biblical history. There was a lot of research that went into this book and  I give the author a big salute for that.

Now, onto the stuff I did read....

JK. BEFORE WE GO INTO THAT READ MY DISCLAIMER.
Sorry for the shouting, but READ IT.

(Also, blogger is telling me that I'm spelling "amidst" wrong. I know I'm not, blogger. Stop telling me what to do.)