Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Mr Loverman

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo

53 reviews

charliebnl's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

This charming book is told from the perspective of the opinionated, dapper Barrington Jedidiah Walker loving known as Barry. Barry is a Caribbean man living in the UK. He is married with two daughters and has built up a wonderful life for himself. Except that his long-term lover may leave him if he doesn’t find the courage to leave his wife and be true to himself.

I love Bernadine’s writing and honestly, I am ashamed to say I’ve only read two of her books now. I had to check if she was from the Caribbean because she did such a stellar job of representing a Caribbean British man and as charming as Barry can be, he can also be as annoying, frustrating, and hurtful to the ones he loves.

However, as we follow his journey of working out how to come openly into his sexual orientation in his 70s, we explore the many dangers that still face the LGBTQ+ community both in the early ‘60s as well as in the present day.

One thing that really stood out for me, is that I probably listen to a lot of homophobic dancehall music without me knowing it. It also made me question, why people need to make so much content about someone else’s orientation. Barry grows on you at times, but also you do hope that he gets some karma for the chaos that he has created in other people’s lives, in particular his wife’s and his lover’s.

Content Warnings

alayamorning's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

3.75

Content Warnings

zombiezami's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted 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

5.0

This book was fantastic: beautifully written with complex characters. I found myself liking Barry in spite of myself. His attitudes rubbed me the wrong way and often reminded me of male family members whom I find exhausting. Even so, I found myself very entertained by him and feeling compassion for him as a human. I thought he was excellent as an untrustworthy narrator.

Content Warnings

charlouise's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I struggled through the whole book to determine whether I even liked Barry and settled on the truth that I liked him in the way I like a grandparent with slightly problematic views - I won’t dispute their company though I would not necessarily seek it out, and if we weren’t blood related with a history of memories together it's unlikely I would continue to be their friend. Most antagonising to me is how Barry’s view of himself rarely aligns with his actions. Barry is a hypocrite. Barry has caused a lot of pain onto others in his life, yet Barry has also lived through the same lonely times - due to barriers of both a societal and self imposed nature - unable to admit to the world, and himself, who he truly is.

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I honestly found this book quite hard to get into. I found my dyslexia was constantly battling against Bernadine’s writing style - using a combination of Caribbean vernacular and words way beyond my reading comprehension - and never quite winning. However, whilst this made my reading experience much more tiresome I think it really added to the book and sold Barry’s character.

Another issue I faced was the lack of a self insert character - I know a very privileged and narcissistic view to take but with no young girl I struggled at first to input myself into the story. Initially I wasn’t a fan of any of the characters, but as their backstories, and motivations were revealed I began to appreciate them all as complex people. Did I like them all? No. Did I agree with their actions and reasoning? No. Do I now understand the complexity of passing moral judgement for their actions when their lives and lack of certain privileges made them feel trapped within these decisions? Yes.

Barry is written to be severely flawed - he’s incredibly self centred and though he thinks he’s going out of his way to be a good father, by going to feminist studies he goes with such a closed mind that he takes nothing from the experience. Wrangling a supposedly selfless act to bring father and daughter together to an act simply for show.

Carmel on the other hand is obsessed with everyone else. The married couple’s seemingly one uniting quality is that they are both stubbornly set in their ways. Carmel living out her life a homebody stay at home wife, with few friends, no spine to divorce her husband and unable to find someone who can satisfy her needs emotionally and sexually and instead turns to god - suffering in near silence as if this bring her closer to him whereas in actuality it’s an excuse to standby the misogyny ingrained within her, a misogyny she would pass down to her children if she had her way. Whilst her unwillingness to be the change in her own life is incredibly frustrating, Carmel should still be viewed with some sympathy. She had her whole life uprooted at a young age, married to someone who could never love her back and moving abroad without her support system. It's easy to see how she became trapped and bitter at what her life had become. It's understandable why she feels its her duty to stay with Barry yet so frustrating to know she could in reality have left him much earlier and the barriers she faced were of her own minds making. Mr Loverman is largely at its simplest about the built up barriers to the characters achieving happiness - and sadly many of the barriers come from their unwillingness to act.

One part of Mr Loverman I particularly appreciated was how despite Morris numerously being described as a “red top reader” he has much more progressive views than his counterpart Barry. It makes you question whether Morris & Barry are actually a good fit or just the only other gay men in the majority of each other’s lives.

Whilst I’m glad the book ended in divorce I felt like Barry got off easy. It’s not that I think he deserves to be punished per-say. Being gay is not a sin. But he did make Carmel’s life miserable and seemingly takes no personal responsibility for that. There was a throw away paragraph or so on the guilt and resentment Barry feels about this but it just feels like it’s there to wrap the book up cleanly rather than because his character has grown. I think this would be a lot more believable if we saw him actually live with some of this guilt, or the spark that causes rather than him reminiscing on it.

Content Warnings