Book Review

VS

Both of these books are novels based upon biblical stories. Anita Diamont (author of The Red Tent) acted as a mentor for India Edghill (author of Queenmaker.) In my humble opinion, The Red Tent is a superior novel. Hang with me and I'll try to explain.

The Red Tent is the story of Jacob's only daughter, Dinah. In the book of Genesis, Dinah is mentioned along with a very short story about her. Diamont takes that story and builds a novel around it. She explores the relationship between Jacob's two wives (Dinah's mother Leah and Jacob's beloved wife Rachel) and the two handmaidens that were given as quasi-wives to him. The story works because it doesn't go against any biblical presentation of Dinah as a character. Her role in the actual biblical account is tiny. So Dinah was a blank slate for Diamont to create. The resulting novel is satisfying and compulsively readable.

Queenmaker would have been a comparable novel if it had been a story about a fictional character. Unfortunately, Edghill chose King David as her inspiration. That's where the trouble starts. The novel's main character is Michal. Michal is the daughter of King Saul and she is David's first wife. She is married to David before he is king. Had the author just centered her book on Michal and the life she lived where the bible is silent about her (which is a lot) things would have been ok. But she doesn't. Edghill bases almost the entire book on the biblical account of David's reign. It just doesn't work. If you have no appreciation for the bible, this probably won't bother you in the least. But, for me, it was impossible not to keep a running "David would never have done that" commentary going. The bible says that David was a man after God's own heart and while his faults were many, he just in no way resembles the manipulative character that Edgehill has created.

If you have to read just one of these, you should definitely go with The Red Tent. If you're not a bible purist, you'll probably enjoy Queenmaker as well. If you're a godless heathen, you should just skip them both.