Authors: Anita Diamant
ISBN-13: 9780743246170, ISBN-10: 0743246179
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Date Published: September 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)
While she first caught the eye of mainstream fiction audiences with The Red Tent -- an inspired reimagining of the female experience in biblical times -- novelist Anita Diamant has been chronicling the hot topics in contemporary Jewish culture for over two decades as an acclaimed columnist.
Before The Red Tent won her international literary acclaim, Anita Diamant was a columnist in Boston. Over the course of twenty years, she wrote essays that reflected the shape and evoution of her life, as well as the trends of her generation. In the end, her musings about love and marriage, birth and death, nature versus nurture, politics and religion and everything from female friendships to quitting smoking have created a public diary of the progress of her life that resonated deeply with her readers. Now, Pitching My Tent collects the finest columns of a writer who is a reporter by training and a storyteller by heart, all revised and enriched with new material. Personal, inspiring, and often funny, Pitching My Tent displays the warmth, humor, and wisdom that Diamant's legions of fans have come to cherish.
This collection of short essays, culled primarily from the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and then reworked, offers a taste of nonfiction from the author of the novels The Red Tent and Good Harbor. Diamant describes these selections, organized around such themes as love and marriage, child rearing, friendship and living a religious life, as "a sort of diary." Some pieces ring with poignancy, such as Diamant's memorial to her friend David. "I wish," she writes after she leaves the cemetery before David's casket is lowered, "I had stayed to see the workmen come with their truckload of soil that would tuck him in the earth. I would have added my flower to that blanket, burying him just a little." Other selections are less appealing, such as the one on witnessing a four-alarm fire and another on teachers and sexual harassment. The book's strength lies in its woman-to-woman conversational tone, especially in the opening section about married life and its dark side. "In my more rational moments," Diamant writes, "I understand that nagging is not only unattractive but also a total waste of energy. Jim [Diamant's husband] is never going to (a) clear out his piles of magazines, (b) pinch pennies, or (c) give his lungs and heart a break from nicotine just because of anything I say." Diamant's fans will relish "Midrash-or Not," which answers the question of whether The Red Tent is really Bible commentary. Taken together, these morsels will make a tasty snack for Diamant's admirers. Agent, Amanda Urban. (Oct. 2) Forecast: The staggering success of Diamant's previous works and a jacket photo of the author looking casual and approachable will attract female browsers, although it's unlikely this will approach Tent-like success. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Introduction | ||
Love, Marriage, Baby Carriage | ||
The Kiss | 5 | |
Religious Fanatics | 11 | |
Why Marry? | 15 | |
Blast Offf | 19 | |
Nagging | 24 | |
Truce and Consequences | 28 | |
Grief, Dispossessed | 32 | |
Airing It Out | 36 | |
Bedtime Story | 41 | |
Fireflies | 44 | |
My One and Only | ||
One | 55 | |
Nursing a Dream | 59 | |
Tender Triangle | 63 | |
Artful | 67 | |
Reading Material | 70 | |
Learning to Let Go | 74 | |
Beach Beacon | 77 | |
Dear Emilia | 80 | |
The Mother's Bat Mitzvah Speech | 83 | |
Columbine | 86 | |
Friday Night at the Crossroads | 89 | |
The Good Ship | ||
Side by Side | 97 | |
Girlfriends, in Particular | 101 | |
With a Friend in Mourning | 104 | |
A Four-way Debate | 107 | |
Widening the Circle | 110 | |
To Sir, with Love | 113 | |
Dogs and Katz | 116 | |
Time Zones | ||
Straddling the Calendar | 125 | |
Rosh Hashanah | 128 | |
The Sukkah Next Door | 132 | |
Assimilating Thanksgiving | 135 | |
Christmas Lessons | 138 | |
Ha-Ha-Hanukkah | 141 | |
Purim Rocks | 145 | |
The Orange on the Seder Plate | 148 | |
Yom HaShoah | 151 | |
Yahrzeit | 154 | |
In the Middle | ||
Midlife, the Beginning | 161 | |
First Flame | 165 | |
Vigil | 169 | |
Time-out | 173 | |
Good-bye | 176 | |
Heaven on Earth | 179 | |
The Communal Route | 183 | |
Home for the Soul | ||
Aleph-Bet | 191 | |
Reforming | 194 | |
My Teacher | 198 | |
Joyful Noise | 201 | |
Meeting Adjourned | 204 | |
Midrash - or Not | 207 | |
Living Waters | 211 | |
Community | 217 | |
Acknowledgments | 221 |