The Lioness

Right off the bat, I'm  going to say that I would not recommend The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian to any of my reader friends. I've really enjoyed every Chris Bohjalian novel that I've read in the past and really suffered through this one that I read for my community book club. My guess is that we all selected this one based on having read other Bohjalian novels before.

The story is set in Tanzania in 1964. A famous actress invites 7 loved ones to join her and her new husband on their Serengeti safari honeymoon. They expect what everyone expects from a luxury safari - then and now- to be catered to in the wilds while being awed by the wildlife surrounding them. What happens is a kidnapping that we get to hear about from the perspective of each of the participants.

There is a famous "white" hunter, African guides and Russian mercenaries. The kidnapping goes terribly wrong and Bohjalian describes tragedy after tragedy after tragedy.

I'm still trying to figure out what  the point of the novel is. At one point I thought it was going to lead me to a thoughtful reflection upon race in Africa in the 1960s. He barely scratched the surface of that. There were political implications but not enough background information for me to feel as though I've learned a lot while reading the story.

The writing was good... but...

I'm hoping that our book club discussion will focus on what the author's purpose was as I continue to try to figure that out.