BOOK REVIEW: BLACK CAKE by CHARMAINE WILKERSON

Synopsis

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.

My Thoughts

This book has been on my radar for a while and this is why I decided for the month of June (Read Caribbean Month) it would be one of my book club picks. Where should I start with this review? This book exceeded my expectations because I went into it blindly, not really delving into what it was about. I also found the title 'Black Cake' interesting, because for Caribbean people and especially in my family black cake is something we have for Christmas, and yes we soak fruits in rum for months before to get the right texture, so a book about black cake?

Anyway this story was so rich, it spoke to black cake as a symbol of a life lived and a past beginning in the Caribbean, then the UK and a future in California. The black cake represents a mother Mathilda who one day leaves an island seeking a better life in a foreign land leaving behind Covey her daughter with her father Lin (who addicted to drink and gambling, loses his daughter). I love how the author tells Covey's story through a recording upon her death where her two children Benny and Byron (who are both struggling in different ways).

Covey's story was so full of surprises, some of which I admit made me sad and reflective at times because while reading, I asked myself if indeed people keep secrets to the extent that they go to their graves with them. I liked this book a lot because it was so very well executed. Charmaine Wilkerson is an author to watch.