The Lion

Summary

The narrator, whose name we never learn, arrives at an African game reserve at the foot of Kilimanjaro. He is welcomed by the family of the park's warden: Bullit, a former hunter; his wife Sybil, who seems to miss her life before the bush; and their daughter Patricia, who has the gift of "talking" to animals, and to her father.

We learn that the family took in a lion cub, which Patricia raised and named King. An almost symbiotic bond ties the little girl to her lion. After a while, Sybil decides to return King to the reserve: she can no longer bear to watch her daughter lose interest in the human world and put herself at risk next to an animal that could kill her in the blink of an eye. Since then, Patricia has gone out into the reserve every day to find her lion.

Meanwhile, a Maasai clan settles in the reserve, and a young warrior, Oriounga, catches the attention of the narrator and Patricia. He discovers the girl's bond with the lion, and a game of dares begins between them.

Patricia holds great power over animals, but over people too: she imposes her will on her father and drags the narrator wherever she likes. She tests that power on Oriounga, who asks for her hand in marriage and says he is ready to face King for his initiation rite.

At the second meeting between King and Oriounga, Patricia loses control of the young Maasai's warrior pride, and he attacks the lion. King fights back, and Bullit is forced to shoot the animal that killed Oriounga. Patricia's world collapses. She ends up agreeing to go to boarding school in Nairobi, less out of desire than to turn the page on her parents and the reserve, which now disgust her.

Characters

• The narrator: we know very little about him. He is only passing through, a neutral observer of the drama.
• Bullit: a legendary former hunter, he lost his taste for blood shortly before his daughter was born. He loves his park and its animals, and feels boundless love for his wife and daughter. He understands that Patricia is not made for the human world, but he is in awe of her gift.
• Sybil: Bullit's wife. She loves her family more than anything, but seems to miss the society life she led before Africa. She wants Patricia to leave the reserve for a boarding school and discover "the world". Yet she has more depth than a mere "society lady stranded in Africa".
• King: the lion the family took in. Released once fully grown, he still meets Patricia every day and obeys her blindly.
• Patricia: animals accept and respect her. She does what she wants with her father and her lion, and the park's Black staff obey her too. At 10 or 11, she tests the limits of her power on everyone, not without vanity.

Analysis

By chance, I had just read Cocteau's The Infernal Machine, and the end of the book reminded me of that play. Patricia's vanity is punished by the very source of that vanity: she is the one who brings about the fatal meeting between King and Oriounga, and it is her father who shoots the lion. Her innocence is destroyed, and she punishes herself by exiling herself from her world, just as Oedipus punishes himself when the truth is revealed to him.

What works

• Kessel's style. I have been a fan since The Man with the Miraculous Hands (Les Mains du miracle).
• The setting. Nature is sublime, and the landscape at the foot of Kilimanjaro takes you on a journey from start to finish.
• The ending. The tension builds slowly, relentlessly, and the ending lives up to it.
• The characters. Apart from the narrator, confined to a passive role, they are deep and human. They have their nuances, and none is a caricature.

What is harder to take

• The colonial gaze. This is 1950s colonial Kenya, in a royal reserve run by white people who give orders to Black people. Black characters are all treated as inferior, whether Westernized or living by their ancestral traditions. I couldn't tell whether this is the author's own view or a deliberate depiction of the mindset of that place and time.
• Underused characters. Some Black characters deserved more depth: Oriounga and Kihoro are pushed into the background too easily.

Verdict

An incredible novel that takes you on a journey and makes you think far more than you might expect at first. A must-read at least once in a lifetime.