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Award-winning journalist and best-selling novelist Anita Diamant has written
a number of handbooks on Jewish life and customs. However, she is best
known for The Red Tent, a novel
which explores the interrelationships of the women surrounding Jacob
-- that's the Jacob -- from
the book of Genesis. In The Red Tent
Diamant creates a rich textural world that makes the Biblical times seem
more alive and accessible. Communiqué recently had the privilege
of talking with Ms. Diamant about her life, her work, and her beliefs.
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Communiqué: In The Red Tent you write about the main character Dinah's journeys
with such clarity and detail. Have you ever been to those parts of the
world?
I hadn't been when I wrote the book. I visited Israel very
briefly a couple of years ago, but I haven't been to Iraq, where part
of this would have happened, nor to Egypt.
You describe it so beautifully
for not having experienced it. How has that trip to Israel affected
you?
I certainly feel more connected to the land of Israel than I
did before my trip, but I have not returned to that part of the world
since then.
The sound of your prose in The Red Tent
has a song-like quality. Do you associate your storytelling in the novel
with older, perhaps Homeric, traditions?
Well, I think [the
book] draws on the fact that, for most of history, storytelling was
an oral form. We are from an oral tradition, all of us, until the invention
of writing. So we've been listening to stories longer than we've been
writing them down and reading them. I think it hearkens back to that.
Many women read your books and profess a kindred relationship to
you. They hear themselves in the text, appealing to its femininity.
Are there any particular ways that you would describe your writing as
"feminine?'
No, not self-consciously. I think I assumed a largely female readership
when I was writing both of my novels, actually. Not that I excluded
men, but I did assume a female reader.
Your nonfiction work seems to mirror the events occurring in your
own life. For example, you wrote The Jewish Wedding
when you were getting married. Do your fictional works, like Good
Harbor, serve as personal quests for
you?
No, and the other books aren't quest books either. I wrote
the wedding book the year after I got married, because I realized that
there wasn't a book like it and thought there needed to be one. The same
thing is true of the baby book, which I wrote after I had a baby and after
our ceremonies and such. Those experiences made me realize that there
was a hole in the bookshelf, and that I could be helpful with the skills
I had and the interest I had in helping other people negotiate life-cycle
events. So, they followed my experiences rather than led me into them.
So Good Harbor would just be
sort of a reflection of your observations about life at this point?
Right.
What are some of the greatest rewards you find in being a writer?
I think probably one of the greatest rewards in all writing is that
it makes me pay better attention to everything in my life. To what's going
on around me, to my own feeling states, to bird songs -- everything. I feel
it causes me to tune in, and I think that's a great gift.
One of your projects, Mayyim Hayyim, is about enhancing the experience
of conversion to Judaism by recasting immersion in the mikveh (ritual
bath) in a new light. Do you actively practice Judaism in your own life?
I'm a practicing Jew. I belong to a congregation, and I observe the
Sabbath in my own way. I observe holidays. My husband, my daughter, and
I are all active in the Jewish world, so it's part of our social lives,
our daily lives, our work lives and our volunteer lives. It's woven into
the fabric of everyday life, not separate or even once a week. It's part
of daily life.
Is there a particular Biblical character with whom you identify?
I don't think I "identify" with Biblical characters. I do find them
all intriguing. I find the whole process of critical study of the Bible,
in particular the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) fascinating.
It's always challenging and enlightening -- especially with a good teacher
and good fellow students -- but I don't identify myself with people in
the Bible in that way.
Are there any particular women who have influenced your faith?
You know it's funny: the language of "faith" is not the Jewish language.
It's an interesting difference. Judaism is much more a religion of practice
and of study and of engagement than of faith. "Faith" sounds, to Jewish
ears -- and I say this with all due respect -- like an internal feeling
state rather than something you do with your hands. I know that's not
always true, and I know that people of faith spend all their days working
very hard to make the world a better place. But that language that doesn't
speak to me. . . . I have many teachers who are women -- rabbis and women
scholars who have been very important. They have taught me a great deal
about making meaningful connections to Judaism in the kitchen, in the
synagogue, in the community, and as a parent. Many of those women are
friends. They're not necessarily people you've heard of, but one of them
is Karen Kushner, with whom I co-wrote How to be a Jewish Parent. She is a social worker, a teacher, and a phenomenal mother -- and someone
I have learned a lot from on all levels.
Are there any films
or works of art that have affected you personally, that have influenced
your beliefs and the way you view life?
I'm sure there have been. You know, I saw Angels in America
by Tony Kushner several years ago, in New York on Broadway. It was a transforming,
surpassing, phenomenal experience for me. But to translate that into how
that affects my faith life or my Jewish life, would be impossible for
me to do. "It took the top of my head off," to quote Emily Dickinson.
It sort of gave me courage because I thought it was such a gutsy piece
of art. It made me think, "Okay, he could do that. I can write a
novel." It inspired me because it was so powerful and strong and
good.
What do you feel your role is in the within the Jewish community? What
would you like it to be?
Well, one of the roles I feel most proud of is that of the translator
of Jewish tradition into contemporary language and contemporary idioms
that people find welcoming, so that, for people who are interested in
exploring Judaism (who were either were born Jewish or not born Jewish),
my books are a really welcoming gateway. That's a role that I'm both comfortable
with and proud of.
I've read some of Living the Jewish Life, and I was delighted by the wording you used and the warm sense of it.
I felt very intrigued and inspired. I'm very curious to finish it and
get to learn more.
Thank you. My goal was to be accessible to anyone who's finished high
school, basically. If you are interested and motivated to read a book
like this, you shouldn't have to be looking things up in the dictionary
afterwards. If there are words you don't know, there's a glossary. And
it should feel welcoming.
And not overly simplistic.
Right, not overly simplistic. I think my guide books offer a starting
point and affirm any beginning as a good beginning. I'm really glad to
hear you say that.
Do you think you are an ambassador for modern-day Judaism to people
of other faiths?
I don't think so. My nonfiction books tend to be books for the Jewish
community and for people who are connected somehow to Jews. The book I
wrote on death and dying (the saying-Kaddish book) I think, has helped
people who aren't Jewish understand their Jewish neighbors or their family
members and their traditions, so it's been helpful that way. I think the
fiction has reached a much broader audience. But I've found that people
who read The Red Tent
-- in particular "people of faith" -- don't necessarily see it as a Jewish
book. I don't think of it as a Jewish book, though many Jewish readers
do. When I've spoken to groups that included both Jews and non-Jews, the
Jews tend to ask questions that assume it is a Jewish book. Afterwards,
the non-Jews in the audience come up and say, "I didn't think of it as
a Jewish book at all." The Red Tent touches people in different ways, which is why, I think,
it has found a larger market.
Which isn't an easy thing to do either. Most people, if they hear a
word like "Christian" or "Jewish," tend to avoid it or classify it quickly.
Right, but those words do not appear on the covers of either of the
novels, and that's why it's got the potential of reaching out.
As a writer, with your eye for revelation and as a result of your interaction
with Christians, is there anything you think is lacking in the Christian
experience?
Well, it's not about "lacking." One of the things that I've been intrigued
by is how Christian readers are intrigued by the sort of freedom that
Jewish readers have with Scripture because of the Midrashic approach to
the text. There is a line in the Talmud, I think, that tells us to "turn
it on its head to find out what it really means." Midrash is an ancient
tradition of making up stories to explain the mysteries and apparent contradictions
in the text. This is a pretty standard Jewish approach because if you
read the Bible literally, it doesn't make sense. But if it doesn't make
sense and you believe it was divinely written or inspired, then it cannot
be the author's fault, it's got to be the reader's faulty interpretation
and understanding. Thus it's up to the reader to come up with interpretations
that are satisfying. This notion has given Jewish readers tremendous permission
to enter into the text, to identify with characters in the text, to pull
them apart, to re-imagine them. I have found many Christians readers to
be fascinated with that approach, and theologically liberal Christians
are very intrigued with this notion. I've even seen the term "Christian
Midrash" here and there. So, that's been an interesting interface between
me and the Christian world.
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Anita Diamant's newest book, Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood,
Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith, will
be released this fall. For more information about Ms. Diamant and her
books, visit her website, anitadiamant.com.
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