It’s not po-faced though and there are laughs and smiles, for example when Byron and his mum experience an earthquake and one thing MUST be saved: the fruit steeped in alcohol waiting to go into a black cake.īut this was going too far. The book is careful about colonialism, pointing out that black cake is an offshoot of plum pudding brought to the islands by the British and also discussing the way foods have travelled and mixed over the centuries through one particular character. Who are these people and how are they connected with their parents? Did their parents have lives before them? Gradually events unfold and unfurl, hopping backwards and forwards through the timeline, but in a self-assured manner that works out fine, and touching on gender violence, mores in various countries, colourism, micro-aggressions, climate change and pollution, and privilege – but never in a heavy or preachy way.

We follow the story of several characters from a 1960s Caribbean island, loosely based on Jamaica, to the UK and the US, and at first we’re as confused as Benny and Byron as we all learn about people they’ve never heard of before.

Now they’re in a lawyer’s office, being forced to pay attention to their late mum’s words and work out when (and whether!) to share the last black cake she made for them.įor their mum, the recipe for black cake was the only thing she took with her from her original life. And just why are they expected to be so perfect? Byron’s angry with Benny as he’s over-achieved and pushed through his career, but at the expense perhaps of the freedom and love he sees Benny grasping. In short, you became Byron Bennett.īrother and sister Byron and Benny haven’t seen each other since Benny walked out after a family row about what their parents saw as her lifestyle choices and she saw as her own ways of loving and arranging her life.

If you were born to Bert and Eleanor, you banked on your university degrees, you built your influence, you accumulated wealth, you quashed all vulnerability. I’m doing well with my NetGalley reading this month – well I wasn’t able to download “Girl Transcending” before it vanished and I didn’t get on with “Influenced Love” but I’ve read and reviewed three of the others with this one and am currently reading Monica Ali’s “Love Marriage”. I’d been looking forward to reading this novel about family ties and ruptures since I downloaded it in September I do tend to like to read books around their publication date.

Review of black cake