Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson revolves around two adult siblings trying to decipher their mother’s deathbed confessions as they imagine her living different lives and identities.
Eleanor Bennett is dead. But before she died from cancer, she had recorded her deep-rooted secrets with the help of her lawyer-boyfriend, Charles Mitch. Charles brings the recordings to Eleanor’s two children, son Byron and daughter Benedetta, or Benny for short. Byron and Benny haven’t spoken to each other in years. An oceanographer on the rise, Byron doesn’t understand his younger sister’s decisions to not stay on the straight and narrow path their Caribbean immigrant parents set them on. Benny, a college dropout, is still trying to establish roots in her career and love life after some heartbreaking moments that she tried to share with her family but felt she was rejected. As the two siblings feel awkward around each other back home in California, they have to sit with Mr. Mitch and listen to the hours of recordings their mother left behind.
Eleanor Bennett was born Coventina “Covey” Lyncook. In the 1950s and 1960s on a Caribbean island similar to Jamaica, Covey loves competitive swimming with her best friend, Bunny. Covey’s father, Johnny “Lin” Lyncook, a Chinese immigrant on the island, owns a general store. He’s also a gambler, so Covey tries to focus on her schoolwork. Her mother is gone and has failed to reach back out to the family. To ease the missingness of Covey’s mother, Pearl, a family friend and the housekeeper, takes it upon herself to watch over Covey. Pearl helps the family while maintaining a successful baking business. Her most requested dessert is the wedding treat of black cake, which Covey learns to make.
Covey’s life is turned upside down when her father promises her hand in marriage to a known moneylender and murderer named Little Man Henry to settle a gambling debt. At 17 years old, Covey knows she doesn’t want to marry this 38-year-old criminal but rather spend her life with Gilbert “Gibbs” Grant, her boyfriend who wants to study abroad in the U.K. for a more promising future. When Little Man Henry falls dead at the wedding with the black cake with lilac icing barely touched, Covey makes a run for it to the waves. The storm brewing above should make the swim precarious, so when Lin finds Covey’s weighty wedding dress on the beach, he believes his daughter is dead.
With assistance, Covey gets to the U.K. to work as a nanny. She must keep a low profile, so she changes her last name since she is a suspect in the murder of Little Man Henry. But she wants more of a career. She enrolls in a nursing program with other Caribbean women. There, she meets a woman her age named Eleanor Bennett. A tragic turn of events forces Covey to become Eleanor to seek the career she wants. Feeling like she dodged another bullet, Eleanor arrives in a workplace where a violent incident and the aftermath change the trajectory of her life again bringing her to the U.S. with a husband and eventually a family.
Black cake is popular in English-speaking Caribbean countries where it’s considered a twist on Christmas plum pudding. It’s usually served on special occasions such as weddings and holidays. In the book, Pearl makes a living with and later without Covey’s mother providing black cakes as Covey becomes an apprentice. With being forced to change her life three times, Covey as Eleanor brings the recipe to her new homeland and teaches the recipe to her daughter. Benny carries an old plastic measuring cup in light of her mother’s death because it gives her comfort. Byron finds a bowl of fruits marinating for the black cake while searching through the kitchen. Their mother would marinate dates and maraschino cherries in rum and port every five years to bake a layer of black cake for her and Bert to enjoy a slice on every wedding anniversary. The dessert becomes a symbol for Eleanor’s children as they bridge her past as a young woman to the mother they always knew. When they learn about another family member, the siblings are determined to bake the black cake to enjoy the dessert their mother always held close to her heart.
Another theme in the book is the ocean. Though Covey leaves home to escape punishment for a crime, her best friend, Bunny, still defends her. Bunny eventually grows up to be Etta Pringle, a global swimming champion. Etta never forgot how Covey inspired her to take those long-distance swims on their island. When Covey as Eleanor becomes a mother, she instills her love of swimming into her children. While Benny loves to bake mainly because of the black cake tradition, Byron loves the ocean as he would surf with his mother. In the U.S., African Americans still deal with the stereotype of not being able to swim, mainly because of the country’s past of discriminating against them and other people of color by cutting off access to pools and waterways. But in countries where the population is predominantly of people of African descent, the waterways represent freedom and the residents are usually strong swimmers. This perspective of people of African descent who love swimming, and not only love the sport but also love the ocean, is refreshing to see as a part of Caribbean culture.
Overall, the book builds up tension well as Covey aka Eleanor tells her autobiography through audio speakers and the events swirl into more events as her children examine her every word and imagine her every situation. More stories have used the theme of the deathbed confession, but some of the characters are considered famous, so their autobiography is worthy of listeners. But this story stands out by featuring a young Caribbean woman, who lacks wholeness without her mother and is forced into an arranged marriage, and how she overcame sexism and racism to get what she wanted in the end though it looked different than what she would have expected. The story has been adapted into a TV series on Hulu. The book would entertain readers who are interested in family secrets and dynamics, oceanic power, and Caribbean history and culture.
⚠️ Trigger warning! The story and the post below have graphic references to topics such as sexual assault.
Black Cake on Hulu brings Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel to life through a cinematographic lens, showing the main character’s inner conflicts of hiding her identity multiple times to escape an arranged marriage that ends in murder.
The TV series opens with Covey escaping the murder scene in her wedding dress toward the ocean in 1960s Jamaica then shows 70-something Eleanor walking into the ocean with her surfboard, determined to get lost in the water. The girl and the woman are the same person. How Coventina “Covey” Lyncook, played magnificently by Mia Isaac in her youthful years, becomes Eleanor Bennett, played by Chipo Chung in her older years, makes the story within Black Cake full-bodied like the rich dessert that serves as its title.
For the quick synopsis (the book review can be found here), Covey is growing up in Jamaica as a competitive swimmer and the only daughter of Johnny “Lin” Lyncook, one of the only Chinese immigrants in the Black community. Her mother, Mathilda, left years earlier, so her mother’s friend and housekeeper, Pearl, helps raise her while earning money baking black cakes for weddings. When Lin runs into gambling issues that threaten his general store, he arranges for Covey to marry Little Man, a career criminal. Seventeen years old, Covey wants to keep swimming with her best friend, Bunny. She is also in love with Gilbert “Gibbs” Grant, a fellow competitive swimmer. When Little Man falls to his death during the reception right when Pearl’s black cake is being served, Covey makes a run toward the ocean. She is now a suspect in her husband’s murder. In the water, she is rebaptized as Coventina Brown on her way to England then Eleanor Douglas in Scotland then Eleanor Bennett in the U.S. Her two children, Byron and Benedetta “Benny,” spend the length of the story deciphering their mother’s deathbed confessions through audio files before discovering they have another sibling.
The overwhelming theme of the loneliness around hiding your true identity to escape a life choice someone made for you bleeds into most of the scenes involving the character of Covey. Her gambling father forces her into an arranged marriage with an older man known for his criminal activity, and now the girl who had dreams of taking over the world of competitive swimming is running for her survival. The criminal arrangement still leads her to a life of criminality that forces her to change and steal her identity to escape trouble.
In the second episode “Coventina,” Covey labors over a pot of Chinese fish soup at her clients’ family home. She is ordered to make fish and chips for the two children she cares for as a nanny, but the homesickness is too overpowering in London. While she has access to the kitchen, she makes the soup. The maid, who is also Chinese, smells the soup and tastes it. She recognizes the dish and questions Covey about how she learned to make the soup. Covey answers that her grandmother taught her without revealing she too is Chinese. The maid leaves with suspicions. Covey can’t afford to bond with the maid over their shared ethnic identity because she is hiding her entire identity. What if the maid is a Chinese woman from Jamaica? When Covey serves the children the soup, they are disgusted and upset that fish and chips are not being served as expected. Though she is homesick, Covey is embarrassed that she tried to bring a sense of home into someone else’s home, especially serving children without developed and diverse palates. The moment is smaller than the many pivotal moments, but it stands out in demonstrating Covey’s loneliness and homesickness in such a simple light. The dinner forces her to reexamine her fear of living within the Caribbean and Chinese communities in London and wonder if the next batch of immigrants who arrive on the next ship will recognize her and turn her in to the authorities in Jamaica.
The third episode “Eleanor” shows us how Covey becomes Eleanor after assuming the identity of her upbeat roommate Eleanor, played by Karise Yansen, who is killed in a train accident as they are traveling to live a new life in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the show, she has a hard time finding a job as a Caribbean immigrant while recovering from her leg laceration from the accident. She feels she has to hide even more. It mentally takes her back to the island where she is courting Gibbs, played by Ahmed Elhaj. Since she has a boyfriend, she wants Bunny to find one, too. But Bunny, played by Lashay Anderson, doesn’t seem interested in the local boys. She confesses that she likes Covey the way she’s supposed to like boys. Covey reprimands her friend to never repeat those words and advises Bunny to pretend to like a boy out of protection. Back alone in Edinburgh, Covey as Eleanor realizes the advice she had given her friend is the advice she needs for herself to survive.
In the same episode, Covey finds a secretarial job. Out of excitement in finding employment, she wears a light pink crocheted dress with pink heels topped with white flowers on her first day. Right away, her Scottish female colleagues seem to be annoyed by her presence and make comments about the brightness of her outfit. Covey is again reminded to hide. So, the next day, she arrives in an outfit with a drabber color. When she spots accounting errors, she tries to bring the problem to Beatrice, played by Anna Mawn, the ringleader of the women in the office. She gets angry at Covey for insinuating she has made a mistake.
But Covey doesn’t feel right about the mistakes in the account. She goes to her male boss, who seems understanding of the situation. He admonishes Beatrice for ignoring the mistakes and invites Covey to dinner with his wife. The trust between Covey and her boss makes her feel seen in a positive light. Then her boss reveals that he knows Covey is lying about her identity. He points out the lack of nursing education, a lie Covey used on her résumé as part of her new identity as Eleanor. With Covey afraid to confess, her boss sexually assaults her. Beatrice notices Covey in shock returning to their room in the office. She follows Covey into the restroom, where she explains the boss had assaulted her and the other women in the office, but they all needed the job. She tells Covey to clean herself up and return to her desk. Covey is visibly upset over the ordeal and how she let her walls down to the first person who showed her attention when she was supposed to be invisible.
Covey returns to London after having her daughter, Mathilda, as a result of the assault. As the seventh episode “Birth Mother” shows a pregnant Covey trying to stay under the radar at a church, she fights to be noticed to keep her daughter. But she fails when a couple swoops baby Mathilda in a quickie adoption arranged by the nuns. Covey is running after the car carrying her baby away, but she cannot keep up.
Since Edinburgh turned out to be a disaster starting with the tragic death of her roommate, Covey puts on her cloak of invisibility in the fourth episode “Mrs. Bennett” while walking the streets of London. She notices a protest across the street, and in a perfect moment of fate, she lays her eyes on her beloved Gibbs. He is yelling into a megaphone alongside protestors, but he stops when he lays his eyes on Covey. They immediately reunite and spend time together. But one day, a Caribbean girl notices Covey. She calls out to Covey, but Covey answers to Eleanor now. The girl asks about Eleanor’s whereabouts since it was reported that Covey had died in the train accident. Covey hides behind Gibbs and explains the stress and the loneliness of hiding in plain sight. Gilbert Bennett Grant becomes Bert Bennett while Covey becomes Eleanor Bennett.
The series shows a healthy portion of the recently past present and current present with Byron, played by Ashley Thomas, and Benny, played by Adrienne Warren, who are making sense of their mother’s story and realizing why both their parents had to change their names once they started their new lives in the U.S. But the dramatic sequence of events featuring Mia Isaac as young Covey tugs on the heartstrings more since the strong emotions of disappointment, loneliness, and despair lay within Covey’s past. Throughout the series, there are flashbacks to the relatively peaceful existence Covey lived in Jamaica, even after her mother, Mathilda, left the family in hopes of finding the promise of a better life in the West. The turquoise ocean, the lanky palm trees, and the golden sunlight of the island warm the screen every time, even at times when the story shows a rough scene. The cover for the series shows a young Covey running away toward the ocean at sunset from her deadly reception. How young Covey navigates a path she stumbled onto for the sake of living her life is the root of the storyline.
The eighth episode ends with adult Bunny, a world-famous competitive swimmer played by CCH Pounder, admitting to killing Little Man with a poison Pearl was preparing for the wedding to give Covey a chance at the life she wanted. Pearl decides it is too risky to use the poison, but Bunny sneaks it into Little Man’s drink. Covey’s three grownup children — Byron, Benny, and Mabel Mathilda, played by Sonita Henry — have joined Bunny, now known as Etta, to discover this revelation. But the TV storyline omits some of the book’s ending and opens to new possibilities of a second season.
Toward the end of the book, Etta leads Byron, Benny, and Mabel Mathilda to visit Pearl, played by Faith Alabi, in Florida. She would visit Pearl when she competitively swam in the state. Pearl is in shock that not only Covey was alive this entire time, but she raised a family with Gibbs. All the children remind her of Lin when they laugh. And Mabel looks the most like Covey, though she is considered White. Still in Florida, Etta also guides Covey’s children to their biological grandfather, who they learned with the revelations is Chinese and still alive in his 90s. After a tumultuous gambling past in Jamaica, his luck had turned in the U.S. through investments. He had a private investigator find Covey, who at the time was living as Eleanor Bennett in California, but he felt his daughter should’ve reached out to him. Though he left the island, most of the island at the time ended up in Florida instead of the U.K. in the late 1960s, so he believes Covey would’ve found him if she wanted to. These crucial reunions and meetings, for example, aren’t covered in the series, but they could add another element in a new season.
Another part of the book that failed to make it to the screen is Covey as Eleanor before her death going to see her old friend, renowned swimmer Etta Pringle, speak at a conference. Eleanor sits in the crowd, and Etta notices the face of her old friend who she believed died in a train accident in Scotland decades earlier. Eleanor gives Etta a note with a phone number. They discuss awkwardly a date to meet, but by that time, Eleanor is dead.
In the TV series’ fifth episode “Mother,” Byron gets arrested for beating Benny’s abusive ex-boyfriend on the street after Benny calls to be rescued. In the book, Byron’s girlfriend Lynette, played by Rebecca Naomi Jones in the show, calls Byron to notify him that she couldn’t make it to his mother’s funeral because her nephew had been involved in a police incident. Also in the book, Lynette gives birth to their son. But in the show, Byron finds out at the end that he will be a father when Lynette shows up to the funeral, so his parenthood can be explored in another season.
The series emphasizes a few events in the book. One example is Mabel Mathilda, who is a cultural food anthropologist who gets canceled for whitesplaining indigenous foods during a panel discussion. She is the daughter who reluctantly is given up for adoption. She was raised in a White family and not told about her adoption until Eleanor Bennett’s lawyer Charles Mitch, played by Glynn Turman, reaches out to her. Mabel is raising her son, Gio, alone, but she sends him to boarding school while she lives between London and Italy. This is shown on screen, but in the book, we see Mabel yearn for Gio to return home after noticing her neighbors’ son, who is the same age as Gio. Mabel’s husband died before Gio was born, but the series can dive deeper into Mabel’s life. The scene in the TV series where young Covey is running after the car belonging to Mabel’s adoptive parents is excruciating to the point that Mabel will have to deal with that image and bring it up with her family. She still also has to tell Gio that she is adopted, has met her biological siblings, and went to her biological mother’s funeral while lying about being on her book tour in the U.S. The show spotlights the personal lives of Byron and Benny since we meet them at the beginning of the series, while Mabel is introduced in “Mother,” therefore we have the abridged version of her reality.
Reminiscent of the visual reimagining of Natalie Baszile’s Queen Sugar by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, Black Cake keeps its story mainly intact and gives moments more space to breathe and expand. Along with author Charmaine Wilkerson, Oprah is also an executive producer for Black Cake. Thanks to showrunner Marissa Jo Cerar’s book-to-TV credits, the series tells the story with dramatic cinematographic shots. The series is so exquisitely done, but it’s due to the novel being entertaining and heart-wrenching simultaneously with the tension pulsating on every page the way it’s pulsating in every scene.
