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Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith »

Book cover image of Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith by Anita Diamant

Authors: Anita Diamant
ISBN-13: 9780743246170, ISBN-10: 0743246179
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Date Published: September 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)

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Author Biography: Anita Diamant

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.

Book Synopsis

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.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Love, Marriage, Baby Carriage
The Kiss5
Religious Fanatics11
Why Marry?15
Blast Offf19
Nagging24
Truce and Consequences28
Grief, Dispossessed32
Airing It Out36
Bedtime Story41
Fireflies44
My One and Only
One55
Nursing a Dream59
Tender Triangle63
Artful67
Reading Material70
Learning to Let Go74
Beach Beacon77
Dear Emilia80
The Mother's Bat Mitzvah Speech83
Columbine86
Friday Night at the Crossroads89
The Good Ship
Side by Side97
Girlfriends, in Particular101
With a Friend in Mourning104
A Four-way Debate107
Widening the Circle110
To Sir, with Love113
Dogs and Katz116
Time Zones
Straddling the Calendar125
Rosh Hashanah128
The Sukkah Next Door132
Assimilating Thanksgiving135
Christmas Lessons138
Ha-Ha-Hanukkah141
Purim Rocks145
The Orange on the Seder Plate148
Yom HaShoah151
Yahrzeit154
In the Middle
Midlife, the Beginning161
First Flame165
Vigil169
Time-out173
Good-bye176
Heaven on Earth179
The Communal Route183
Home for the Soul
Aleph-Bet191
Reforming194
My Teacher198
Joyful Noise201
Meeting Adjourned204
Midrash - or Not207
Living Waters211
Community217
Acknowledgments221

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