Reviews

Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo

charliebe's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

readinglobster's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

fant_ine's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

misskatz's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bookishcompass's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

charlie_rosannah_reads's review against another edition

funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

raymond_murphy's review against another edition

4.0

Gay, black, dl, Caribbean, east end (of London), neighborhood love--a lot of things I like. The obvious duality of a closeted older black man was just a base for a lot more texture, like Barry also being incredibly sexist and making full use of a lot of male privilege.

Also funny.

Dual first person style with one unreliable narrator and one that speaks in prose poetry. Pretty impressively done.

The plot got tied up too neatly--Barry got let off the hook to fully own how some of his decisions affected others. And Carmel and especially Morris could have used more development.

olivegregory's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

patrick_dale91's review against another edition

3.0

A very readable, if not ground breaking, read. Barry is an elder Caribbean man, who has been living in Britain for most of his life married to his wife for fifty years...but having an affair with his true love, a man called Morris. Just like in girl, woman other, this is such a readable story- I love Evaristo's writing style. Some chapters focus on his long suffering wife, where it's written in a stream of consciousness style; her prejudices and unhappiness are elicited in her swirling thoughts. There are a lot of similar things here to Girl, Woman, other: a mixture of race, sexual identity and vivid characters, but it never reaches the brilliance and uniqueness of that book. I found some of the attempts at humour didn't quite work with me as well. Still, I was always happy to pick up the book and read it, and it did reach a lovely, satisfying ending.

dottienic123's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I’m torn. The subjects addressed in the book are really important and I’m sad they haven’t been reflected better. But I was pretty much just bored throughout, and actually, it felt quite offensive at times with so many mysogynist stereotypes. He’s rather opinionated for being the subject himself of oppression. It’s just 300 pages of moaning.