A review by serendipitysbooks
My Policeman by Bethan Roberts

emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 
Most of June was fairly hectic but life has now returned to normal and that means I’ve again got the time and mental capacity for my favourite genre - literary fiction. Hurrah!

My first pick was a superb one. My Policeman is set in Brighton in the UK in the 1950s and the late 1990s. It’s the story of a very complicated relationships between Tom, the titular policeman, Marion whom he marries, and his lover Patrick. There are two narrative threads - one from Marion’s perspective in the 1990s where she looks back at events in the past, and one from Patrick’s perspective in the form of his diary entries from the 1950s. One offers the benefit of a hindsight and a long-term perspective; the other of raw honest immediacy. The writing was exquisite, intimately depicting the emotions - desire, jealousy, love, loss, obsession, regret, shame - of Marion and Patrick. Even Tom, for although we never hear from him directly, we do see parts of him through the eyes of Marion and Patrick. All three characters were flawed and made some selfish, in one case reprehensible, choices. But life in the 1950s offered limited options to women; fewer still to gay men whose sexuality was criminalised. As such I felt for them all - the boxes society attempted to confine people in cost everyone a chance at true happiness.

Adding to the poignancy and impact is the fact that the story was inspired by a relationship between EM Forster, a policeman named Robert Buckingham, and Buckingham’s wife May. I found it captivating, both beautiful and profoundly sad. The audio is also excellent.
 
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