The Lioness

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian 336 pages 

When I first started hearing about Bohjalian’s 2022 book, I heard it was about Old Hollywood. I adore stories about Old Hollywood. However, the novel’s timeframe, 1964, isn’t Old Hollywood. I was disappointed but dug in anyway. Bohjalian always comes through with a great read, and this one is no different. 

At first, the unique structure was off-putting, but by the end, I thought it was brilliant. Each chapter would start with current time (1964), but then switch to each character’s backstory. As the novel progressed, in each chapter, narrated by one of the ten top characters, the structure shifted, dealing more with what was happening than backstories.  

In 1964, one of the most glamorous and A-list actresses in Hollywood, Katie Barstow, marries gallerist David Hill. Instead of a traditional honeymoon, they take seven others with whom they are close with, along on a photo safari to Tanzania, Africa. They hire a famous guide, Charlie Patton, who puts together a “civilized adventure.” However, it’s hot on the Serengeti, and there is nothing Charlie can do about that. 

Not long after they arrive, the group is attacked by Russian mercenaries. They shoot most of the porters and guides, leaving Katie, David and their entourage defenseless. The Russians round them up, divide them up and shove them into the Land Rovers, “guns to their heads,” and head out into the desert. What follows brims with dread; this reader had her heart in her stomach for the rest of the book. 

All are terrified, but the Russians show no mercy. As thy group travels across the plains, each takes chances they would never take back in Hollywood, chances that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. 

Even given the dismays I pointed out earlier. “The Lioness” still receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. That sense of dread and several shocking events kept this reader up long past her bedtime.  

 

The Personal Librarian

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray 341 pages

 I love historical fiction. It teaches me things I never knew, and it sends me down rabbit holes, searching for more information. Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray’s new novel did those two things and more.

Belle Marion Greener is the daughter of Richard T. Greener, the first man to graduate from Harvard, and Genevieve Fleet Greener. The family left Washington, D. C. to escape the racial tensions that had been growing since the end of the Civil War for New York. There Genevieve decided that she and her children---Belle, her brother, and two sisters---would “pass.”  Mr. Greener, an activist, refused and left the family.

The family struggled, until Belle got a job as the personal librarian to financier J. P. Morgan. Belle knew that Morgan would never hire a Black woman, so she changed her name to Belle da Costa Greene, a woman of Portuguese decent, which explained her ‘dusty” complexion. Her job was to help Morgan build the most extensive library of rare books and manuscripts, antiquities and the finest art collection in the world.  

Taking place in the early 1900s, this novel is about the guilt that Belle carried; terrified that someone would discover her secret. After goggling images of her, I could understand why she was so scared.  But the book is also about how a hard working young woman became one of the most powerful and influential women in the art world. She was able to travel alone in New York and in Europe.

I had a little trouble with the first third of the novel as rare works that I had never heard of made me feel rather stupid. But Belle’s story is one of the most interesting period pieces I have read.

Another interesting tidbit on this novel is the collaboration of the white Marie Benedict and the Black Victoria Christopher Murray. Personally, I could not tell which section of the novel each writer championed, but the two together created a deep, lush narrative that I found irresistible.

 “The Personal Librarian” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.