Black Cake had me gripped at the start and, though I can understand why some feel as if rather too much was added into the pot by the end, it will definitely go down as one of my highlight reads of the year.
The book opens with estranged siblings Benny and Byron being called to attend a meeting with their mother’s lawyer to hear the recording bequeathed to them. Details are, initially, sparse but we learn that their mother had a secret. A secret that now she is dead can be shared.
The story she wants to share with them explains exactly who Eleanor Bennett was. They learn of their mother’s past living with her immigrant father, the ill-fated marriage with an older man her father was in debt to, her new life in Britain and her journey towards the life she grew into in California. While her story may be familiar in many ways for the time, it comes as a shock to her children.
I loved the structuring of this book and the gradual way we got to learn about the lives of all the characters involved. The characters are not without flaws, but their resilience and determination to try and do their best was something that I found appealing. I enjoyed reading about Eleanor’s experiences, and the love story between the key characters was well-depicted. As a number of reviews point out, there’s a shift towards the latter stages of the book to social commentary with a lot of issues being explored, but I think this reflected the rich tableau of characters and experiences we were introduced to. It certainly did nothing to diminish my enjoyment of the story laid before us.