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Mr. Loverman

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Soon to be an eight-part television series starring Lennie James

Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he has lived in Hackney, London, for years. A flamboyant character with a fondness for William Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father, grandfather—and also secretly gay.

His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?

With an abundance of laugh-out-loud humor and wit, Mr. Loverman explodes cultural myths and shows the extent of what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves.

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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Barry and Carmel Walker, Londoners by way of Antigua, have been married for more than 40 years, but the time has finally come for Barry to choose love over secrets. Told in two voices, this is a provocative contemporary story of a marriage and its unraveling. As Barry, a dapper septuagenarian, Ron Butler charms with his musical tenor. His sense of language and timing is spot on, underlining the rhythm and wordplay of Evaristo's storytelling. In contrast, Carmel's chapters are marked by regret and anger. Despite an uneven accent, Robin Miles offers a convincing, sympathetic portrayal, capturing Carmel's evolving emotions as she reclaims herself. The years fall away from their voices as Barry and Carmel move together toward independence. A.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 21, 2014
      Evaristo's (Blonde Roots) enjoyable new novel follows Barrington Walker, a 74 year-old Antiguan man living in Hackney, London. A husband, father, and grandfather, Barry is a respectable elder with deep pockets and antiquated views of masculinity, but he's also a flamboyant character with deep affections for retro suits, highbrow literature, and his childhood friend and gay lover, Morris. In the twilight of life, Barry is out of patience with his bitter wife, Carmel, and their disintegrated marriage, and he longs to accept Morris's offer to move in together. Barry tells his story in a winning mix of patois and eloquent "speaky-spoky," that is insightful and often hilarious as he confronts his "scaredy-cat" fears and the probable ramifications of finally following his heart. Interspersed chapters from Carmel's point of view highlight her experiences in 10 year intervals, with poetic sentence fragments mixed with longing, self-talk, and prayer; these monologues lend balance to the narrative and trouble the reader's alliance. Barry's story parades a wide range of characters of varying depth and complication, and pivotal conflicts that don't always beget significant consequences. Despite an ending too neatly tied, Evaristo crafts a colorful look at a unique character confronting social normativity with a well-tuned voice and a resonant humanity.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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