Eleanor was born ‘on the island’ as Coventina ‘Covey’ Lyncook. In the recording she gives a full account of her life before the children were born. With the help of her lawyer friend, Charles Match, Eleanor also makes a lengthy recording which she instructs should be played to them both in person. Her intention is that her children should share the cake ‘when the time is right’. Eleanor bakes a ‘black cake’, a kind of rich fruit cake, a recipe she was famous for and which she inherited from her ‘island’ (Jamaican) culture. Eleanor remained faithful to both her children, however, and her final act was an attempt to reunite her children after her death. She was close to her son, Byron, but her daughter Benny, a talented but troubled young woman, had drifted out of her life, leaving their California home and moving to New York after dropping out of college. She was a widow, having lost her husband Bert, the love of her life, a few years earlier. Brought together again, in an uncomfortable and fragile truce following the death of their mother, they are forced to confront family secrets that will shatter their worlds, but which will have the effect of healing their rift and enabling them to build their own challenging lives back again.Įleanor Bennett knew she was dying of cancer at the age of 70. Byron and Benny are siblings who have grown apart in recent years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |