BookLife Review: Black Cake, by Charmaine Wilkerson
Jamaica, family recipe, family secrets, multigenerational story, swimming champion, drowning, young love
When Byron and Benny’s mother, Eleanor, dies in California, she leaves behind a family recipe for her coveted black cake, and a voice recording-the story of a champion swimmer who left her homeland as a runaway bride under suspicion of murder and the mystery of a lost child. The story traces the monumental ripple effects of one woman’s decision to flee, and the subsequent choices she makes, many under duress and based on insufficient resources, fear and misinformation. The story calls into question everything that a brother and sister believe they know about their family.
The underlying origin story from the prior generation pulls back the curtain on life in Jamaica a generation earlier, rife with racial tension between native black residents and immigrant Asian power brokers. There is death, grief, corruption, young love, unrequited love, escape, adventure, loneliness and living incognito. The layers of the story are riveting, and the twists and reveals are delicious. Family tradition is captured in a mother’s treasured recipe for Jamaican black cake, a cake symbolizing culture, family and celebration.
The secrets and their discovery are so central to the story that they will not be revealed in this review. Wilkerson beautifully evokes both setting and emotional turmoil. Life on the the island, the beauty of the beaches and the sea, the challenges of a life lived in relative poverty, the insidiousness of corruption, and the power of forbidden love all weave a tale well worth reading. Although the book was made into a television mini-series which can be viewed on hulu, don’t miss the lovely language bath of that is the book, before reaching for the remote.