Out of Darkness, Shining Light

This historical novel by Petina Gappah purports to tell the story of the return of Dr. David Livingstone's body to England after he died in central Africa--a journey of 1,500 miles that took almost a year. It is told from the perspective of Livingstone's expedition cook, Halima, and Jacob Wainwright, a secretary who joined the expedition shortly before Livingstone died. Halima was bought out of servitude by Livingstone to be a "travel wife" to one of Livingstone's main expedition organizers, an abusive man named Amoda. She is outspoken at times and has even run away from the expedition following an argument with one of the other "travel wives." Halima is critical of a man who could basically abandon his family to search for the source of a river (the Nile), but she pragmatically notes, “People can do good and still be bad, and do bad and still be good.” Livingstone has promised to buy her a house of her own when they return to Zanzibar so she may live as a free woman. In spite of his death, Livingstone's son honors his father's commitment to Halima. The other narrator, Jacob Wainwright, was rescued from slavers as a child and taken to an English school in India run by a missionary named Nassick; the graduates of that school are often referred to as Nassickers. Jacob is very pious, in fact self-righteous and full of himself. Yet he has also incorporated some degree of self-loathing as a result of his colonial education. Jacob has taken it upon himself to organize and preserve Livingstone's papers and has aspirations of returning to England with Livingstone's body, becoming ordained as a missionary, and returning to convert Africans to Christianity. He will be disappointed in these aspirations.
In the review from The Guardian, they claim that these various narratives serve to demythologize a man "who was often petty and occasionally venal; who blundered through the continent propelled by a conviction of the superiority of his own ideas; who considered it impossible to overstate slavery’s evils yet relied heavily on the assistance of slave traders; and who wasn’t above 'having a man beaten if that is what has to be done.'”I would agree with their reviewer that, at times, the book stuttered because it "felt loaded too heavily with information at the expense of plot." And, I might add, too many unpronounceable names. Might be better to consume as an audio-book, although it would still be a challenge to keep track of all the characters and places--which, by the way, were not reflected to any significant degree on the enclosed map! The review from The New York Times is lukewarm; whereas, Kirkus gushes, "a rich, vivid, and addictive book filled with memorably drawn characters. This is a humane, riveting, epic novel that spotlights marginalized historical voices."
Guess you'll have to decide for yourself.