Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson
Black Cake is a novel spanning three generations and three countries, following Eleanor Bennett and the life she had to create for herself again and again at the cost of her previous selves, none of which she divulged to her children until after her death. The novel opens with Benny and Byron meeting with their mother’s lawyer to discuss her will, a meeting in which they discover that she has left them hours and hours of audio tape to listen to and which opens with the theme of all themes, murder. At first they don’t recognize any of the characters in this story, or what it has to do with them, but eventually they begin to see their parents and then themselves in small details and events, and the story comes together in full. I would write more, but that would mean spoilers. 😉 Wilkerson manages to effortlessly weave together the cultural contexts of three very different countries in this intricate story of one woman’s fight against gender norms and what is expected of her, landing us in the present day with all of its complexities and forms of violence which are sadly not all that unique.
The Voyage of Freydis, Tamara Goranson
The Voyage of Freydis follows the story of Freydis Eiriksdottir, a Greenlander woman who was the first woman to lead a Viking voyage across the Atlantic. As the author notes in her afterword, since Freydis lived in the 11th century, the information we have about her in mainly through legends, and the information we do have is not favorable to her, as is the case with many women throughout history whose stories have only been told by men. Goranson thus had a lot of leeway in her retelling of Freydis’s story. To escape an extremely cruel and abusive husband, Freydis befriends two Icelanders who are set to sail across what they call the northern sea to the new lands previously explored by her brother, what I am pretty certain is now northern Canada. Because of her position in society and the wealth she has at her disposal, she is officially the owner of the ship and leader of the voyage, and though they arrive safely to the new land, things go downhill from there, as winter sets in and there is much sickness and not enough food to last them until spring. One day, Freydis goes out hunting and falls ill, and is saved by an indigenous tribe, who she lives with for many months. These months change her life and perspective, but apparently not enough, as she constantly yearns to go back to see what has become of the Icelanders, a decision that will eventually cost her everything.