Mr Loverman – Bernardine Evaristo (2013)

Following my read of the Booker winning Girl, Woman Other last year I was looking forward to reading more by Bernardine Evaristo – and it has certainly taken me long enough. Girl, Woman other was on my books of the year list last year – and when I read that, lots of people recommended Mr Loverman to me – once I had read a bit about it and seen some reviews, I knew it would be the next book by Evaristo I read.

In this novel we meet Barrington Jedidiah Walker, or Barry to his friends. His voice is immediately engaging, warm, funny, vulnerable a little defensive and often outrageous – he pulls us into his world. Barry is very loveable. The novel is narrated sometimes by Barry and sometimes his wife, but it is his voice and his personality that drive this brilliant novel.  

Barry is a seventy-four year old Antiguan with a big personality. A real London character, a very natty dresser, always kitted out in a retro suit from the period when he was in his prime. He came to London as a very young man, and is now a husband, father, and grandfather – with an impressive property portfolio. The narrative moves back and forth in time, showing us different periods in Barry’s life – we see him as an adolescent in Antigua, a young man in London, a father to teenagers. He recalls the island in the Caribbean that he left – and the promise that England held.

“We all thought England was goin’ be utopia. This country has over fifty million citizens, whereas we didn’t even have fifty thousand in the whole of Antigua and Barbuda. Folk could get lost here, be anonymous, lead they own quiet lives. In this city you can live on the same street as your neighbours for eighty years and not even say good morning unless there’s a war on and you forced to share a bomb shelter. Back home everybody kept their eye on everything and everyone.”

However, for sixty years Barry has been in a relationship with his boyhood friend and soul mate Morris. Everyone in the area is used to seeing them around together – partners in crime, like an old married couple – well exactly.

Morris came to England first, and Barry followed with his new wife. He created a life, had two daughters, worked – began buying old derelict properties and doing them up. Through all the years – there was always Morris. Life with Carmel – his wife – was often hard – it was never really a happy union – and Barry has given Carmel plenty of cause to be angry. She has always assumed he was off with other women on the nights he came home late. Carmel is a committed Christian, for her marriage is a lifelong commitment – no matter what – but this marriage has stifled Carmel – stopped from being really happy. Though even for Carmel there is the memory of a happier time in her past, a secret she carries.

Now, with his long marriage in full meltdown – and his eldest daughter siding with her mother as usual – Barry has some very difficult decisions to make.

“The whole point of a midlife crisis is to start living the life you want instead of tolerating the life you have.”

With things between Barry and Carmel at an all-time low – she travels back to Antigua to see her dying father (who is almost a hundred). When she returns will Barry finally have the courage to tell her the truth – end his marriage and set up home with the man he has loved for a lifetime?

In this wonderful novel – which is teeming with faithfully drawn characters, Evaristo successfully explodes several myths about culture and sexuality. She examines the fear that surrounds prejudice, the difficulty people may have even just with certain words, certain labels. It is also a big hearted exploration of the older Caribbean community, that generation who came to Britain after WW2.  

Evaristo explores Barry’s tentative steps toward a new life with comedy and deep affection. Many of these characters are flawed – but aren’t we all – and there is a wonderful honesty here in their portrayal.

“All of my life I’ve watched couples holding hands, kissing in the street, on the bus, in pubs. I’ve watched couples walking arm in arm, ruffling each other’s hair, sitting on each other’s laps, dancing closely, romantically, jazzily, funkily, badly, bawdily. And never, not once, have I felt able even 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.”

I absolutely loved Barry and Morris – Mr Loverman is an absolute joy of a book, thank you to everyone who recommended I read it.