Thursday, January 15, 2009

Book Love

If you need a good book to read, I highly recommend:




The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant

In Genesis 34, Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, is only briefly mentioned as a short and tragic detour from the main story of Jacob a Joseph.
This story imagines what else might have been going on in her life before and after this horrific and deadly moment in time. We get a close look at the early Jewish/Christian religion and the pagan beliefs and customs it replaces. I find it both fascinating and breath-taking.

The Red Tent is an epic tale told in a rich, vivid, and sensual manner. While you read; you smell, taste, and feel the dust, oils, yeasts, and wine. You catch glimpses of the red pomegranates, brown figs, and the golden landscape. And, always, you feel the warm arms of mothers, the weight of a child in your womb, and the pain of birth.
It is a taste of ancient womanhood that seems so exotic on one hand, but so familiar on the other.

Some quotes from the novel:

-When Zilpah was pregnant, "She gloried in her new body, and dreamed wonderful dreams of power and flight."

-"I am not certain whether my earliest memories are truly mine, because when I bring them to mind, I feel my mothers' breath on every word. But I do remember the taste of the water from our well, bright and cold on my milk teeth. And I'm sure that I was caught up by strong arms every time I stumbled, for I do not recall a time in my early life when I as alone or afraid. Like every beloved child, I knew that I was the most important person in my mother's world."

-"If you took the time to look, you could see right away that Bilhah was good. She was good the way milk is good, the way rain is good. Bilhah watched the skies and the animals, and she watched her family too."

-upon the birth of her child: "There should be a song for women to sing at this moment, or a prayer to recite. But perhaps there is none because there are no words strong enough to name that moment. Like every mother since the first mother, I was overcome and bereft, exalted and ravaged. I had crossed over from girlhood. I beheld myself as an infant in my mother's arms, and caught a glimpse of my own death. I wept without knowing whether I was rejoiced or mourned. My mothers and their mothers were with me as I held my baby."

Daily Calories- 1200

Workout- none (bad headache)

1 comments:

Star Forbis said...

Thank you so much for visiting my Blog and Laughing with me. Come back any time.