THE LIONESS (Chris Bohjalian) - August 1/22

 I wound up having to read this one in two chunks, months apart. The first half of this book is really an endurance test, as Bohjalian loads the narrative up with characters that remain almost impossible to tell apart until the final third. The structure of each chapter, with the beginning and end the safari stuff and a section in the middle devoted to a flashback, didn't help in terms of the non-existent momentum. But I did find myself finally enjoying the book as the number of characters steadily dwindled, and I did race through the second half in just a few days. **1/2 out of ****