Anita Diamant
Author of The Red Tent
About the Author
Anita Diamant is the author of Saying Kaddish, Choosing a Jewish Life, The New Jewish Wedding, Living a Jewish Life, The New Jewish Baby Book, Bible Baby Names, and the bestselling novel, The Red Tent. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts. Anita Diamant is the author of the bestselling novel "The Red show more Tent" & several books on Judaism, including "Living a Jewish Life", "Choosing a Jewish Life", & "The New Jewish Baby Book". A journalist who has written for "Redbook", the "Boston Globe", the "Boston Phoenix", & other publications, she lives in Newtonville, Massachusetts. (Publisher Provided) Anita Diamant was born in Newark, New Jersey on June 27, 1951. She received a bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature from Washington University in 1973 and a master's Degree in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1975. She worked as a freelance journalist for numerous years and wrote for such magazines and newspapers as the Boston Globe, New England Monthly, Self, Parenting, Parents, McCalls, and Ms. She also wrote about Jewish practice and the Jewish community for Reform Judaism magazine, Hadassah magazine, and jewishfamily.com. She eventually started writing guidebooks to Jewish life including The New Jewish Wedding; The New Jewish Baby Book; Living a Jewish Life: Jewish Traditions, Customs and Values for Today's Families; and Saying Kaddish: How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead and Mourn as a Jew. She also writes novels including The Red Tent; Good Harbor; The Last Days of Dogtown, Day after Night and The Boston Girl. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Anita Diamant
Living a Jewish Life, Updated and Revised Edition: Jewish Traditions, Customs, and Values for Today's Families (1991) 583 copies, 4 reviews
Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends (1997) 489 copies, 3 reviews
Saying Kaddish: How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead, and Mourn as a Jew (1998) 192 copies, 4 reviews
Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith (2003) 149 copies, 7 reviews
Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends 2 copies
الخيمة الحمراء 1 copy
Lều đỏ 1 copy
The Last Days of Dogtown 1 copy
Anita Diamant 1 copy
Dan posle noći 1 copy
Associated Works
The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them (2006) — Contributor — 411 copies, 18 reviews
Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine (HBI Series on Jewish Women) (2022) — Foreword — 7 copies, 1 review
Things We Don't Talk About: Women's Stories from the Red Tent [2013 film] — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Diamant, Anita
- Other names
- דיאמנט, אניטה
- Birthdate
- 1951-06-27
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Colorado, Boulder
Washington University (BA | Comparitive Literature | 1973)
Binghamton University (MA | English | 1975) - Occupations
- journalist (freelance)
novelist - Organizations
- Mayyim Hayyim
- Short biography
- Anita Diamant is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. She grew up in Newark, New Jersey and Denver, Colorado. She attended the University of Colorado for two years, then transferred to Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature in 1973. She obtained a master’s degree in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1975. She lives with her husband and daughter near Boston. Diamant began her writing career as a freelance journalist and over the years, she has written for the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Yankee, Self, Parenting, Parents, McCalls, Ms., and others. She's the author of six books about contemporary Jewish practice, one collection of autobiographical essays (Pitching My Tent) and three prior novels. The Red Tent (1997), her first novel, was a national bestseller.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Newark, New Jersey, USA
Denver, Colorado, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Brookline, Massachusetts, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Historical fiction based on the biblical story of Jacob, as told through the eyes of Dinah, his youngest child and only daughter. In the Bible, Dinah has no voice, but Anita Diamant has provided a voice for her through this imaginative story of her life that offers a convincing portrait of a community of women in ancient times. The titular red tent is a place where women gather for rituals such as monthly cycles, recovery from illness, and childbirth.
For me, this book is a story of show more empowerment and strength. Dinah lived in a patriarchal society and we see it through her eyes. She would not have been privy to the men’s world, so the focus is on the female relationships and the connections among the women. Fertility, midwifery and childbirth are prominently featured, and Dinah becomes a respected midwife. It effectively evoked the ambiance of an ancient culture. The writing is beautifully descriptive, and the daily lives of the characters seemed believable. This book is filled with engaging characters and multifaceted relationships. While it is based on religious text, there is little formal “religion” portrayed and I did not find it didactic. Knowledge of the biblical story is somewhat helpful, but not required. A family tree of relationships among Jacob, his four wives, and thirteen children is provided.
Themes include storytelling, motherhood, tradition, memory, renewal, and the power of nature. Contains sex, violence (including murder and rape), and graphic descriptions of childbirth. This book helped me appreciate what life would have been like for women in those days and makes me very glad I live in the present time. Recommended to anyone interested in biblical fiction. show less
For me, this book is a story of show more empowerment and strength. Dinah lived in a patriarchal society and we see it through her eyes. She would not have been privy to the men’s world, so the focus is on the female relationships and the connections among the women. Fertility, midwifery and childbirth are prominently featured, and Dinah becomes a respected midwife. It effectively evoked the ambiance of an ancient culture. The writing is beautifully descriptive, and the daily lives of the characters seemed believable. This book is filled with engaging characters and multifaceted relationships. While it is based on religious text, there is little formal “religion” portrayed and I did not find it didactic. Knowledge of the biblical story is somewhat helpful, but not required. A family tree of relationships among Jacob, his four wives, and thirteen children is provided.
Themes include storytelling, motherhood, tradition, memory, renewal, and the power of nature. Contains sex, violence (including murder and rape), and graphic descriptions of childbirth. This book helped me appreciate what life would have been like for women in those days and makes me very glad I live in the present time. Recommended to anyone interested in biblical fiction. show less
Here's a book that gets better with every page you turn.
It's a first person account, a grandmother narrating her life's story to her granddaughter. Anita Diamant has created a very believable voice in the character of this grandmother. Although Addie Baum is Jewish, her ethnic voice could just as easily be Italian or Greek.
Addie's story is typical of her generation, with a twist. She is born to immigrant parents, grows up in a tightly knit ethnic community in Boston, lives through World War show more I and the flu epidemic, and is constrained by the social expectations of marriage and motherhood (and not much else). But Addie doesn't quite fit in. She's a reader and interested in the wider world. How Addie manages to move beyond the limitations her family tries to impose, and become an office worker, a newspaper writer, and later, a social worker, is a testament to how a determined woman can make things happen.
Throughout the book, there are believable anecdotes that could apply to hundreds of women of Addie's time. A troubled relationship with a mother who's impossible to please, a few botched romances, an eventually satisfactory marriage to a good man, and a lifetime of deep bonds with close woman friends. Well worth your time. show less
It's a first person account, a grandmother narrating her life's story to her granddaughter. Anita Diamant has created a very believable voice in the character of this grandmother. Although Addie Baum is Jewish, her ethnic voice could just as easily be Italian or Greek.
Addie's story is typical of her generation, with a twist. She is born to immigrant parents, grows up in a tightly knit ethnic community in Boston, lives through World War show more I and the flu epidemic, and is constrained by the social expectations of marriage and motherhood (and not much else). But Addie doesn't quite fit in. She's a reader and interested in the wider world. How Addie manages to move beyond the limitations her family tries to impose, and become an office worker, a newspaper writer, and later, a social worker, is a testament to how a determined woman can make things happen.
Throughout the book, there are believable anecdotes that could apply to hundreds of women of Addie's time. A troubled relationship with a mother who's impossible to please, a few botched romances, an eventually satisfactory marriage to a good man, and a lifetime of deep bonds with close woman friends. Well worth your time. show less
We all know Anita Diamant from "The Red Tent", and this book finally returns her to that same lofty firmament. This is a tale told with humor, insight, and greatest sympathy for the characters and their times. Although it focuses on a Jewish girl growing up in Boston in the 1920s, by using a North End settlement house as the center of its universe, the book becomes universal in its portrayal of female friendship and empowerment, and the high cost of living in such "interesting times".
Addie show more Baum struggles to get out from under her unhappy mother's purview and into the wide and wilder world. When she sneaks off for a week at Rockport Lodge, an inn for city girls in Cape Ann, her work and personal lives grow to be elongated and liberated, despite the rigid structures and dictates of her family. Each family member, especially her two sisters Betty and Celia, are so fully realized, along with all the people who burnish and enhance Addie's knowledge and sympathy for those less and more fortunate than she.
The Influenza Pandemic and the war spins by as Addie tells her granddaughter the tales that made for a fascinating and well-lived life. One can almost believe that Addie was real. The reader gets to know her and her friends, family, and co-workers so well that it is with utter regret that we take our leave. There are no clichés here, only the perfect flow of a life expertly relished and told. show less
Addie show more Baum struggles to get out from under her unhappy mother's purview and into the wide and wilder world. When she sneaks off for a week at Rockport Lodge, an inn for city girls in Cape Ann, her work and personal lives grow to be elongated and liberated, despite the rigid structures and dictates of her family. Each family member, especially her two sisters Betty and Celia, are so fully realized, along with all the people who burnish and enhance Addie's knowledge and sympathy for those less and more fortunate than she.
The Influenza Pandemic and the war spins by as Addie tells her granddaughter the tales that made for a fascinating and well-lived life. One can almost believe that Addie was real. The reader gets to know her and her friends, family, and co-workers so well that it is with utter regret that we take our leave. There are no clichés here, only the perfect flow of a life expertly relished and told. show less
The Good: The Red Tent blew me away. I actively avoid religiously themed books and I don't have an overwhelming love of historical fiction. That said, The Red Tent amazed me in ways I couldn't have imagined. It mesmerized me. The woman-centric storyline drew me in and made me look at things in a new light. You don't have to be religious to enjoy this book (believe me). When read as a purely fictional novel set in the past with feminist overtones, it's one hell of a good read.
The Bad: Not a show more thing. show less
The Bad: Not a show more thing. show less
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 28
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 26,402
- Popularity
- #791
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 705
- ISBNs
- 208
- Languages
- 13
- Favorited
- 43
