Dinah, great-granddaughter of Abraham, who is briefly mentioned in the Bible, narrates her family's history and her life as a midwife, in Anita Diamant's best-selling "Red Tent."
Women in Dinah's family still honor the old Sumerian fertility gods, especially in connection with their rituals honoring menstruation and childbirth. These aspects of a woman's life are so important that Dinah gains a place for herself, in a male dominated society, as an especially talented midwife.
Curses and dream interpretation are taken seriously and, like her brother Joseph, Dinah gains some esteem for her ability to prophesy.
Because this is a Biblically based story, not everything reaches a comfortable conclusion.
