Megan G. (megelygoi) reviewed on 7/9/2011

This book is about Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob who is talked about in the Bible. I believe the Bible is truth, without a shadow of a doubt, and that being said, I was seriously shocked and disappointed by the amount of paganism and sexual innuendos in this book. It being a Biblically based work of fiction and all. I tried reading this book, I was even excited about it. I expected it to be a powerful voice from a women who we don't hear from, and is only known as the daughter of Jacob that was raped, and then whose brothers went out and murdered all the men in a town as retribution. But in that hopeful assumption I was wrong.
Diamant sets up a whole back story for the wives of Jacob and the way life was for them growing up, and then what happens when Jacob himself comes out of the desert to get a wife from his mothers side of the family. The basic story line is accurate, but that's about all I can say in its favor. I fully understand artistic licence, but "Leah had weak eyes," (Genesis 29:17) not strange eyes that people didn't like looking at so they just said her eyes were weak. Though this is small, and forgivable, the compilation of a myriad of these little things, not to mention the lewd comments, irritated me. I thought maybe it would get better and I could keep going, so I looked ahead, but it only got worse because she sets up Rebekah, Jacobs mother, as some sort of lesser deity and that was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back.
So sadly the overall dissidence of this book with the Bible, where the story originally came from, was too overwhelming, and I had to quit reading it after roughly 20 pages along with a smattering of middle pages.
I apologize if I offended anyone who really loved this book, but I just don't see it...

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