A review by mercapto
Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo

emotional 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

4.0

An unflinching portrayal of what it means to live a lie. Is easy to see how it affects the one keeping secrets, but the fallout is so much bigger.

And yet, despite the outdated views of the protagonists, the homophobia (both outward and internalised), the misogyny… they’re so human. So understandable. Who hasn’t met older people who say the wrong things, but from ignorance rather than hate? I wanted so badly for Barry and Morris to be happy together, but at the same time could see they didn’t think how their wives actually feel, that they are their own people with their own lives. 

Carmel’s chapters remind us that we all live in a world made from our own perceptions, it’s not black and white. Who Carmel is as a person is so different to who Barry sees, the same with the children and their views of their father. I’m glad it was Carmel who initiated the divorce - she needed that, she needed to let go, to free herself. 

And while he makes excuses the whole book, by the end he acknowledges that. He feels guilt, he really processes that just because he was hurting doesn’t mean other people weren’t too. I’m glad that Maxine showed him the world like he’d never seen it, educated him, and that he changed. That he wrote the letter even if he knew she wouldn’t accept it. 

I really did enjoy this, and think it was a very nuanced and sensitive portrayal of a deeply complicated topic.