Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith [Hardcover]

Anita Diamant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2003

Following the enormous success of her two bestselling novels, "The Red Tent" and "Good Harbor," award-winning author Anita Diamant delivers a book of intimate reflections on the milestones, revelations, and balancing acts of life as a wife, mother, friend, and member of a religious community.

Before "The Red Tent," before "Good Harbor," before and during six books on contemporary Jewish life, Anita Diamant was a columnist. Over the course of two decades, she wrote essays about friendship and family, work and religion, ultimately creating something of a public diary reflecting the shape and evolution of her life -- as well as the trends of her generation.

"Pitching My Tent" collects the finest of these essays, all freshly revised, updated, and enriched with new material, forming a cohesive and compelling narrative. Organized into six parts, the shape of the book reflects the general shape of adult life, chronicling its emotional and practical milestones. There are sections on marriage and the nature of family ("Love, Marriage, Baby Carriage"); on the ties that bind mother and child ("My One and Only"); on the demands and rewards of friendship ("The Good Ship"); on the challenges of balancing Jewish and secular calendars ("Time Wise"); on midlife ("In the Middle"); and on what it means to embrace Judaism in today's culture ("Home for the Soul").

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Diamant has achieved fame worldwide as the author of The Red Tent (1997), but this collection brings together essays that first saw life as newspaper and magazine columns and were written primarily before her megabook. She has revised and updated most of the pieces and links them together as seasons of life--love and marriage, motherhood, middle age, death--offering ruminations along the way about life's precious milestones, including holidays, retirement, and the moment when a child leaves home. Diamant also writes about her husband, a lapsed Presbyterian who converted to Judaism and helped her find a more meaningful faith, and her daughter and what it meant to her sense of self to become a mother. She talks about her first retreat and how she wants to retire to a commune with other aged hippies. And always there is her religion, which centers her, sustains her, and marks the passage of time. The essays, some quite short, have the feel of Anna Quindlen's later work but with a Jewish flavor, of course. Yet the topics and feelings Diamant writes about are so universal that putting a religious label on them does them an injustice. Comforting and thought provoking but never saccharine. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

An ideal book for bedside or briefcase--a few stolen moments with a wise, witty friend [to] lift your spirits. -- Jewish Woman Magazine, Winter 2003

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (September 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743246160
• ISBN-13: 978-0743246163
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #917,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In my first novel, The Red Tent, I re-imagined the culture of biblical women as close, sustaining, and strong, but I am not the least bit nostalgic for that world without antibiotics, or birth control, or the printed page. Women were restricted and vulnerable in body, mind, and spirit, a condition that persists wherever women are not permitted to read.

When I was a child, the public library on Osborne Terrace in Newark, New Jersey, was one of the first places I was allowed to walk to all by myself. I went every week, and I can still draw a map of the children's room, up a flight of stairs,where the Louisa May Alcott books were arranged to the left as you entered.
Nonfiction, near the middle of the room, was loaded with biographies. I read several about Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, and Helen Keller, with whom I share a birthday.

But by the time I was 11, the children's library was starting to feel confining,so I snuck downstairs to the adult stacks for a copy of The Good Earth. (I had overheard a grown-up conversation about the book and it sounded interesting.)The librarian at the desk glanced at the title and said I wasn't old enough for the novel and furthermore my card only entitled me to take out children's books.

I defended my choice. I said my parents had given me permission, which was only half a fib since my mother and father had never denied me any book. Eventually,the librarian relented and I walked home, triumphant. I had access to the BIG LIBRARY. My world would never be the same.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Book for Fans of Diamant, October 18, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith (Hardcover)

PITCHING MY TENT by Anita Diamant, author of THE RED TENT, is a collection of short and personal essays on family, friends and religion. Arranged by topic, the essays are, for the most part, light and enjoyable reading. Gathering many essays from her days as a columnist, PITCHING MY TENT reflects the things that are most important in the author's life, and they are things that will resonate with many readers.

Diamant begins by exploring "Love, Marriage, Baby Carriage." In this section she shares personal and general thoughts on marriage and partnership. These thoughts, like those in the rest of the collection, in many ways center not just on marriage, but on a life lived within a particular religious tradition. She shares how she and her husband celebrate Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, and his conversion to Judaism. While this section of the book is actually dedicated to her husband, she does discuss her first marriage in frank emotional terms. From pet peeves to health issues, from mutual friends to the birth of their child, Diamant is candid about her marriage; the specifics she shares point to universals.

Next, Diamant dives into the topic of motherhood and her focus is on her daughter Emilia. She writes loving essays about parenthood as both "an adventure and an education." Two essays in this section stand out. The first is entitled "One" and discusses Diamant and her husband's decision to have only one child, despite the pressure to give Emilia siblings. The other is "The Mother's Bat Mitzvah Speech." This speech is a touching and tender tribute to her daughter on a very special occasion.

The third section in PITCHING MY TENT gathers essays about friends and friendship. These are short yet sweet.

"Time Zones" is the fourth section and one of the most interesting topics of the book. Here, Diamant examines sacred time and ordinary time by looking at the Jewish year and some of its holidays and commemorations. In essays about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, the holidays of Sukkot, Chanukah and Purim, as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas, Diamant writes about being Jewish in a culture both Christian and secular and how she celebrates and understands Jewish (and non-Jewish) holidays. The essays are quite short but are full of insight and honesty. As a daughter of Holocaust survivors, she writes about Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the idea of memory as a sacred trust. Both this essay and the brief one in tribute to her father are poignant and nicely written.

Diamant also has collected essays on middle age but she ends the book with more discussion about religion in her life. She writes that Judaism is her "journey" and her "home" and that it is an "essential lens" through which she understands herself and her place in the world. But these final essays are not as solemn as the introduction to the section would have you believe. Here, Diamant addresses serious issues such as congregation politics and the expectancy that all Jews read Hebrew --- but she does so with a light and witty touch.

PITCHING MY TENT is not exactly a book about religion or family in general but about Diamant's family and her religious life. Her essays are insightful if not challenging or academic. This collection is a great gift idea for fans of Diamant, those who enjoy easy yet interesting reading, and especially for Jewish mothers. A personal look at contemporary Jewish life, PITCHING MY TENT will not generate controversy or create the kind of following that THE RED TENT had, but it won't disappoint those who are looking to learn more about this author.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Pitch!, November 10, 2003

By 

Robin Kall (east greenwich, RI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith (Hardcover)

As a long time fan of Anita Diamant's work - THE RED TENT and then GOOD HARBOR, I was thrilled to see that a new one from Ms. Diamant was on the shelves! I bought it right away!
PITCHING MY TENT was a fast read but one that I can see revisiting from time to time. In this compilation of articles and musings, the reader will get a real sense of what it was like for a woman who had choices and took chances - while her faith in Judaism and living a Jewish life blossomed!
Written in such an honest and personal way, this book stirred many thoughts and emotions and really made me think about life.
This is a book to give to the women in your life, messages that we will all identify with. It may even enourage you to pick up a pen and jot down some of your own memories!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC!, June 3, 2007

By 

L. Williams "brwneyedbaby" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith (Paperback)

A wonderful and inspirational collection of stories and insights on life, love, and faith. Diamant does a beautiful job of making a uniquely Jewish meditation palatable and applicable to people of all faiths. Anyone who has ever raised a child, made a friend, lost a lover, or wondered about the world should invest in a copy of this fantastic collection. I borrowed it from the library, got to the end and flipped back to the front to start again. As soon as I could, I bought my own copy. I know it will never be far from reach in every heartbreaking, wonderful moment when a kind word or new insight will make all the difference. It's like having a stunningly insightful and delightfully funny friend living on your bookshelf. I know from reading the book that Diamant occasionally reads the comments on her books on Amazon, so if you're reading this, my friend, thank you. For this, and many of your other works, I'll be forever grateful.