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A review by literarycrushes
My Policeman by Bethan Roberts
4.0
My Policeman by Bethan Roberts was a beautiful and heart-breaking retelling of three intersecting lives in the 1950s in Brighton, England. I could call it a love triangle, but that’s not quite accurate. I could compare it to Lauren Groff’s Fates & Furies as it did have aspects of a marriage shattered by the truth many years later, but the story is more layered than that.
Set during a time when being queer was still an arrestable offense, the novel follows three characters, Marion and Patrick, and the object of their mutual affection, Tom. It is written from the alternate perspectives of Marion and Patrick from the perspective of 1999 - forty years later, primarily as they fawn over Tom. I was immediately drawn into the story by Marion, a quiet girl who has been in love with Tom, her best friend’s brother, since the day she met him. Her love is patient (if somewhat unbelievably so) as she waits neatly a decade for him to notice her. Meanwhile, Patrick, an older, cultured museum curator, meets Tom in town in the line of Tom’s policework. They strike up an instant friendship (through the eyes of Patrick we know it is immediately romantic, though whether Tom catches on or not is unclear). What follows is the story of desire, love, and betrayal.
It’s a quiet story, and even the final *plot twist* was somewhat anticlimactic. I liked Marion’s character, particularly in the first half of the novel as she describes growing up, and the rebellious-for-the-times decision to become a schoolteacher rather than a housewife. The most interesting parts were following Patrick around Brighton as he is forced to live life so carefully as not to arouse any suspicions about his queerness. I especially enjoyed following him around the hidden-in-plain-sight queer nightlife and the shame and joy that accompanies it. Patrick’s character always felt stiff to me, though this might have been a deliberate choice to reinforce how planned and careful one would have had to act then. Still, when reading his chapters, it felt like he only had a few character traits which were just repeated over and over with slightly different words or situations.
I’ll be excited to see the film adaptation of the novel starring Harry Styles (as Tom!) out next year. Looking at the film’s imdb page for the movie, it seems like they’ll be adding more characters to the script!
(3.5 rounded up)
Set during a time when being queer was still an arrestable offense, the novel follows three characters, Marion and Patrick, and the object of their mutual affection, Tom. It is written from the alternate perspectives of Marion and Patrick from the perspective of 1999 - forty years later, primarily as they fawn over Tom. I was immediately drawn into the story by Marion, a quiet girl who has been in love with Tom, her best friend’s brother, since the day she met him. Her love is patient (if somewhat unbelievably so) as she waits neatly a decade for him to notice her. Meanwhile, Patrick, an older, cultured museum curator, meets Tom in town in the line of Tom’s policework. They strike up an instant friendship (through the eyes of Patrick we know it is immediately romantic, though whether Tom catches on or not is unclear). What follows is the story of desire, love, and betrayal.
It’s a quiet story, and even the final *plot twist* was somewhat anticlimactic. I liked Marion’s character, particularly in the first half of the novel as she describes growing up, and the rebellious-for-the-times decision to become a schoolteacher rather than a housewife. The most interesting parts were following Patrick around Brighton as he is forced to live life so carefully as not to arouse any suspicions about his queerness. I especially enjoyed following him around the hidden-in-plain-sight queer nightlife and the shame and joy that accompanies it. Patrick’s character always felt stiff to me, though this might have been a deliberate choice to reinforce how planned and careful one would have had to act then. Still, when reading his chapters, it felt like he only had a few character traits which were just repeated over and over with slightly different words or situations.
I’ll be excited to see the film adaptation of the novel starring Harry Styles (as Tom!) out next year. Looking at the film’s imdb page for the movie, it seems like they’ll be adding more characters to the script!
(3.5 rounded up)