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    Mr Loverman
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    Mr Loverman
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    Mr Loverman
    Audiobook9 hours

    Mr Loverman

    Written by Bernardine Evaristo

    Narrated by James Goode

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris.
    When his marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?
    'Evaristo remains an undeniably bold and energetic writer, whose world view is anything but one-dimensional' SUNDAY TIMES on Blonde Roots
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateJan 9, 2014
    ISBN9781471252778
    Author

    Bernardine Evaristo

    Bernardine Evaristo is the 2019 winner of the Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other, and the author of seven other books that explore aspects of the African diaspora. Her writing spans the genres of verse fiction, short fiction, poetry, essays, literary criticism, journalism, and radio and theater drama. Evaristo is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature, and was named an OBE in 2020. She lives in London with her husband. @BernardineEvari www.bevaristo.com

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    Reviews for Mr Loverman

    4.5/5

    212 ratings25 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I like to experience actions or communities that I otherwise wouldn't, through reading, and I hit three with this one: gay guys, Caribbean immigrants, and another London neighborhood. The protagonist was by NO means without faults, but I still found him charming. His wife's faults were on display earlier in the book, but her experience was also well explored.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      If you have the opportunity to listen to the audio version of this book please do. The narration by James Goode is absolutely fantastic.

      The book in itself is hilarious from start to finish yet it deals with so many issues like love and relationships, family dynamics, aging, sexual relationships and differentiations, etc. in a subtle but impactful way.

      Barry's character is one you will fall in love with. One minute you'll love him to death, the next you wanna slap him to death...lol.

      A recommended listen or read!

      ? I wonder if there's gonna be a follow up to this one...just saying...Bernardine Evaristo, in case you're reading this ?.
      ♡
      ♡
      ♡
      Anyway, wanna listen to it for free? You can join Scribd and get 60-days of reading free. Click here... https://www.scribd.com/gae/86bvzc (disclaimer: this is my affiliate link). Thanks and enjoy!
    • 4/5
      I found a few parts of this book was too slow paced, so I put it down a number of times, but that did not take away from the larger-than-life character of Barry, and the effects of his decisions on his family.

      Although Barry was the smart, witty, charming main narrator, there were a few snippets of Carmel's story also, revealing how she saw her husband and their relationship. While I understood the difficulty of Barry living with a secret as he didn't feel safe enough to be open, this juxtaposition made him more compelling as it brought out his flaws and the hurt he inflicted by selfishly using his family to cover his secret.

      This was a beautifully written book, about self acceptance, the complexities of relationships and the consequences of personal choices. While reading it I realized it's possible to live your entire life thinking you are doing what is best for everyone involved, while never considering the situation from their perspective and, that they may think it is only in your best interest.
    • 4/5
      I loved being transported to the London of Caribbean immigrants. The reader is excellent!
    • 5/5
      "I wanted to sing his name out into the night. His name is Morris. He is my Morris and he always been my Morris. He's a good-hearted man, a special man, a loyal man, a man who appreciates good joke, a man of many moods, a drinking man and a man with whom I can be myself completely."

      EXCUSE ME-

      "And never , not once, have i felt able to link arms with the man I love. Me and Morris exchange sidelong glances, and flicker . He grabs my hand and squeezes it for a few seconds. It is our first public display of physical affection in sixty years."

      SIXTY YEARS?

      And finally,
      "What Morris don't know is that I secretly set up a trust fund in his name a long time ago, seeing as he still won't let me support him. Should I depart this earth before him(which I hope happens, because I'd rather die than live without my beloved spar), he's goin' be looked after good for the rest of his life."

      4.75 rounded to 5 stars because I love Barry and Morris with my whole heart. These soulmates!!!
    • 4/5
      Fantastic story! Very funny! Barry is endearing in his own way, despite his irreverent commentary.
    • 5/5
      This is a glimpse into the lives of two west Indian gay men whose love must be lived undercover for 50 years in conventional family homes in London. Fascinating and heartwarming as times change and these two flamboyant queens can at last show their love in public.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant. Absolutely loved it. Funny, moving, brilliantly well written and very expertly read.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic characters, brilliantly read. A joy to discover Hackney of the 1960s-2010s through the eyes of Barrington, a curmudgeonly wit with a secret queer life.
    • 5/5
      Truly exceptional writing. What an amusing and endearing character she has created in Barrington Walker, giving the reader a glimpse into the life of truly rare breed of gentleman: that of an closeted gay, elderly Antiguan man, living a double life in London. How skilled a writer she is, to not only bring to life such a character but to make him and his culture shine so brightly it's dazzling. Outstanding!
    • 5/5
      Wonderfully original story, brilliantly read.Amazing characterization. Thoroughly enjoyed this booking
    • 5/5
      I absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Loverman. It was a great read!
    • 5/5
      Brilliantly written and excellent reading.
      Evaristo is an outstanding story teller.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars love, love, loved the Loverman Would highly recommend
    • 3/5
      This is an unsuual book. Barry is in his 70s, from Antigua, living in London, married to Carmel and with 2 grown up children. And the love of is life is Morris. And has been since they were youngsters. Barry is a very dapper, intellectually curious man and he is a most appealing narrator. His chapters were told in the present, with reviews of past incidents. Carmel is a far more opaque character. We see her mainly through other people. The chapters she narrates are in the past and are written in a stream of concious manner - no punctuation no full sentences. She is far harder to warm to. The family are reasonabvly well presented, you get a feel for them as individuals as well as their dynamic. There's a curious diachotomy in here, in that while Barry wants to be accepted for who he is, he also has rather dated attitudes to gender and the role of women in life and society. It makes for an odd mixture and I never quite got my head around it. I'm also not entirely convinved by the utterly complete character change Carmel undergoes. It just didn't feel believable.
    • 4/5
      On the face of it, we shouldn't feel much sympathy for Barry, the main narrator of this book: he's a closeted gay man who, at the age of seventy-five, still hasn't screwed up his courage to admit to his wife and daughters that he's been sleeping with his best friend, Morris, since they were boys at school together in Antigua more than sixty years ago. Not to mention a long history of casual pick-ups, and cruising the local cemetery back in the day. His chronic deception has led to unhappiness for everyone around him, including himself much of the time, and he's at least dimly aware of that, but he's old and male and stubborn, and he's internalised the homophobia he grew up with, so there's no obvious road out.But this is — in an odd kind of way — a romantic comedy, and Evaristo cunningly manages to make Barry funny and engaging enough as a narrator to get us on his side (at least for the purposes of the story). We don't necessarily approve of the way he got himself into this bind, but we do sympathise with his efforts to get out of it, and with the often comic difficulties he encounters along the way. It helps, too, that Evaristo switches the narration to Carmel's point of view a couple of times, just to remind us that Barry is an unreliable narrator, and he isn't quite as much in control of the story as he thinks he is. But perhaps what this is really about is Barry's rich, complex use of language: the man who has grown up ambidextrous in patois and Standard English, has picked up London-West-Indian along the way, and done his evening classes on Shakespeare and psychology and all the rest of it. Evaristo has endless fun with his voice, and of course it works brilliantly as an audiobook. (Except that the narrator has an irritating way of dropping into a dramatic whisper at exactly the point when you're listening out on the street and someone comes past on a moped...).
    • 2/5
      Brokeback Mountain via Windrush. That’s pretty much it. The main character gets off far too lightly - and I’m mildly worried by the thought I was supposed to actually like him.
    • 5/5
      A wonderfully poignant novel about Barry, a mid-70s Afro-Caribbean male, and his in the closet life, with Morris, his lover of 60+ years, and his disfunctional marriage with Carmel. Both Barry and Carmel draw you into their lives and both are told with humour and pathos. All works out in the end. Uplifting and joyful
    • 5/5
      Meet Barrington Walker, a seventy-five year old successful property owner and landlord, married for over fifty years, father, grandfather, and closet gay. An immigrant to London from Antigua, he is a colorful figure in 50s style suits and his charming command of the Queen’s English. His relationship with his lover Morris (also an immigrant from Antigua) predates his marriage. A deplorable fellow, you say? Well, yes, he is, but Bernadine Evaristo presents Barry and his family and Morris is such a way that you root for them and hope that they somehow manage to work things out in the end. There is empathy and humor in this delightful tale. You like this guy in spite of yourself.
    • 5/5
      Strong characters, especially the main narrator, are made more vibrant by the way the author uses dialect. To illustrate, the author is perfectly able to use sesquipedalian Queen's English when it suits his purposes. He uses Antiguan forms when speaking with compatriots and family, but it is not represented as an illegible pidgin. The bulk of the narration is somewhere in between, an informal voice well-suited to storytelling. He is bright, allowing for clever turns of phrase, metaphor, and associations. It's an entertaining read that, in the best tradition of novels, offers a glimpse into a different perspective.
    • 4/5
      I'll admit: I did not like this book at first blush. I finished the book and couldn't figure out why a quick, engaging, thought-provoking novel left me cold. When I finally figured it out, I realized I did like the book, just not in the way I wanted to, but rather in a better way (which is why it made me think).The main character, Barry, is the villain of the story. Let me be clear: he is not A villain. Rather he's the villain of the story. He married a woman he did not love to cover up his gay affair, he took her away from her home by moving to a different country, he had two kids with her that he by turns hyper-criticized/spoiled rotten, he didn't leave his wife when the children were grown, he wasn't careful about hiding his affair from his kids (so they grew up in a house of a lot of secrets), and he treated his lover, Morris, abominably for many years. I sympathize with Barry - he had a lot of difficult decisions to make - but he is absolutely the villain of the story. He's created a broken house around himself all because it was more comfortable. He is selfish and sometimes cruel.That all being said, the writing was excellent. Dialectal differences between characters, accents portrayed in spelling, even the different styles of speaking from the two narrators, were all extremely well executed. The character development, while Barry changes little (in true villain form), was well done for all the others, and it was an incredibly interesting experience to experience the story from the villain's point of view. (To be fair, some people may call Barry an anti-hero, but I don't think he fits that mold as well.) The past was told mainly in the wife's voice and I really appreciated getting to see her points of view. They were a necessary balance to Barry's very selfish, fault-casting personality.There are also some very interesting discussions in the books about feminism, religion, race, and the immigrant experience. Barry, Morris, and their wives were born, educated, and raised in Antigua, then moved to England. This entire book is about discovering how to live the life YOU want, and these discussions are secondary to Barry's secret sexuality, but they are VERY much a part of what both of the families have to deal with in a culture not their own and not particularly welcoming. Barry is flawed and ANNOYING. He's lied to everyone (including himself, convincing himself that it's not an affair if he's not sleeping with other women) his entire life. He has a lot of internalized/generational sexism and homophobia. He's a pretty terrible parent. He's so imperfect. But this story wasn't ever meant to be about perfection or redemption, so far as I can tell. It was about a series of lives long lived in the shadows and how each person needed to find their way out. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone, but I did very much enjoy it myself.B+ (excellent writing in style and execution, interesting narrator choices; main character difficult to appreciate/relate to)
    • 5/5
      Congratulations, Bernardine Evaristo. Hats off to an artist of the written word who can cross gender, nationality, and age lines to portray a most convincing character. In MR. LOVERMAN, Evaristo entertains her readers with a close-up look at Barrington Walker, a closeted gay immigrant from Antigua, West Indies, living in England with his wife of many years. Also in Mr. Walker's life is his friend and lover, Morris; they have been bonded since boyhood, both emigrating from Antigua, marrying women, and raising families all while maintaining a close friendship and discreet love affair. MR. LOVERMAN is the story of a short period in Mr. Walker's life as a senior citizen (both he and Morris are in their 70s) during which he struggles with the idea of divorcing his wife, coming out, and possibly living his remaining years with his male love. But even in contemporary England doing any of those activities would be difficult for a West Indian gentleman of his generation. And this is what Evaristo does so well: here she is, an English female writer on the younger side writing with incredible feeling, real knowledge, empathy, and understanding of what it means to be West Indian, male, a senior citizen, and closeted gay. How does she accomplish this? It can only be noted that REAL writers - and Evaristo is one - have the ability to move themselves into the bodies, souls, and minds of others who are unlike them and somehow inhabit their spheres. MR. LOVERMAN is a poignant example of how a writer can do this while moving mountains - and moving us, her readers.One can imagine MR. LOVERMAN as a stage play. There is a great deal of conversation in this book, something that would not ordinarily call for a four or five-star rating. But somehow Evaristo's chatty approach to her characters feels right. She has obviously observed enough West Indian immigrant culture to have a keen ear for dialect and a sharp eye for amusing - but not overdone - stereotypes of West Indian immigrant behavior. At times her characters seem to have stepped right out of a 1990s' TV episode of "In Living Color." She writes humor well, but she does human emotion and thought even better.MR. LOVERMAN should receive special attention and notice for its author. Bernardine Evaristo has brought Mr. Barrington Walker into all of our lives, truly one of the more memorable characters in modern fiction.
    • 5/5
      I loved this story, the people, the language, the flow. I can’t find one fault. The moment I started reading, I knew I was in for a new experience. The moment I finished, I knew I would miss all the wonderful new characters I’d come to know.I never faltered between the two distinct voices and points of view of the “verbious” Barry and the long suffering Carmel. Ms. Evaristo found a stylistic solution to what is often (in lesser books) a confusing jumping from first-person attitudes with a poetic flow for Carmel and a nearly jet-fueled jazz blast from Barry. Morris needs no one to speak for him as he is all but a very welcome omnipresence in this tale of a lovely “old married couple.” From beginning to end, I found myself laughing out loud at the most unexpected times and at others, my heart broke into frustrated pieces over this family’s life with fear, anger, bitter divides and ever lasting love. Some of the paragraphs dropped me in my tracks and I found myself reading them over and over again to get the full measure and flavor of a distinctly Antiguan accent and world view. This novel is a gem of sparkling witticisms that I will not soon forget.
    • 5/5
      Title: Mr. LovermanAuthor: Bernadine EvaristoPublisher: Akashic BooksReviewed By: Arlena DeanRating: 5Review:"Mr. Loverman" by Bernadine Evaristo was a delightful fiction love read. I found that the author's narrators were splendid giving you such a touching and well written story that I found hard to put down until the very end. The cast of characters were very humorous (some) as well memorable, defined and portrayed. The area of this place in Hackney, London seemed like a place that was describe so very well making you think you were there while you are reading the novel. Be ready for a read where you will find Mr. Loverman involved in his secrecy of what it really meant for him to be free where we find he lives a double life. Who would have thought at a man in his seventies, who had been married over fifty years would have this huge secret that would come out the way it did? And just what was that secret? As I was reading thorough this novel I was kept wondering wow, how well this author Ms. Evaristo was putting this out to the reader and doing a good job at it. I couldn't stop reading just turning the pages to see what was coming next for Mr. Loverman. Yes, it was somewhat heartbreaking read with a 'full bodied riff on sex, secrecy and family' and yet we will find from the read when "Mr. Loverman explodes cultural myths and shows what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves." I felt that "Mr. Loverman" was a good read and all I can do now is recommend for you to pick up "Mr. Loverman" and read it for yourself to see what all that has and is going on with this main character.
    • 4/5
      I received Mr. Loverman as a part of the Early Reviewers program.This book was actually quite charming. I wasn't expecting much but I found myself wanting to read more and more, wanting to know all about the main character's life and problems. Some of the wording or the way things were written or said by characters had me going back and rereading a few times but, honestly, it added to the charm. I enjoyed learning about the main characters life and those around him. Some pretty top shelf stuff here, i'd recommend it for sure.