Mr Loverman

eBook, 320 pages

English language

Published April 30, 2020 by Penguin Books Ltd.

ISBN:
9780241145784
3 stars (1 review)

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 with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly homosexual, lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris.

His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their 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?

Mr Loverman is a ground-breaking exploration of Britain's older Caribbean community, which explodes cultural myths and fallacies and shows the extent of what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves.

1 edition

jebbediah barrington walker is a delightful old asshole

3 stars

which is a good thing. somewhat.

the book itself was a decently light read with an interesting story to tell. characters seemed pretty lively. especially barrington, though i don't mean "lively" in a positive way here. he has something to say about everything, and most of it is at least some degree of problematic. which isn't surprising coming from an old man, but even the love of his life morris calls him out on the regular for being just a smidge too cynical.

in the end i don't find myself astonished by this book, but that's not the expectation i was going into it with. i wanted something a bit lighter after bawling my eyes out at the ending of the these violent delights duology and, comparatively, mr loverman delivered on that. i still wouldn't classify it as a light read, because all the characters have some pretty deep-seated struggles. …