Mr. Loverman

A Novel

De: Bernardine Evaristo

Narrado por: Robin Miles, Ron Butler

Barrington Jedidiah Walker is 74 and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's 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.

©2014 Bernardine Evaristo (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Enthralling fiction that happens to be gay.

Best narration of a novel I've heard. The accents are believable with each reader catching the feel of all the characters such that you can feel the interaction of personalities from both viewpoints.

A lot of fun

Me. Lover man is a light hearted story. The Carribean dialect is fun to listen to.
You are drawn in by by the interesting turn of phrase. No doubt I will enjoy listening to Mr. Lover man again and again.

Very well written…

Author used all the literary tools! Fantastic authorship…unexpectedly great!! Narration pretty good as well.

Don’t miss this one.

Excellent story. I will listen more than once. Married couple living a lie for decades but find happiness in their old age. Very touching and smart and funny.

Loved it!

Such wonderful characters and writing. I laughed all the way through. Can’t recommend it enough!

Excellent writing

The story itself was good. There were a few cringy moments, but it was from the perspective of an old man.

The writing itself was incredible. The vocabulary, the different character voices, all of it.

Magical

I was delighted to find this in the Plus catalogue. I had loved "Girl, Woman, Other, " butmhad never even heard of this author until she shared the Booker Prize with Margaret Atwood. I had just read an article in The Guardian- and learned that Booker Prize winner had been her 9th (?) book! And here was one of the others!

Such a moving story, each character pulling the reader into his/her point of view. Of course, it helps that the main characters are aging, looking back, re-assessing, figuring out what is possible with the time they have left, where parenting fits now that the kids are grown-ups, all those quandaries my age group is facing. Evaristo writes with such affection and compassion towards Barry, and Carmel, and Barry's lover...takes my breath away. She ever so gently shifts from the magnetic and duplicitous Barry to showing, decade by decade, what Carmel has paid for loving him, for thinking he loved her, or that he had loved her.
The narrators are fantastic.
I am recommending this book to everyone I know.

Good story, great writing, exceptional narration!

This book is why I listen to Audible! The narration so much captures the characters and creates a world so vividly that is hard to imagine if only reading the text.
The story itself is good, but the writing is better. What a play of languages, a lovely juxtaposition of high brow and street. It is funny, sad, painful and tender and such a joy to listen to.

Interesting read, unique storyline.

I really enjoyed this unique read, although a few chapters did get a bit tedious — mostly Carmel’s chapters as she comes off rather unlikable, even though you can’t help feeling sorry for the poor woman’s situation.

Barry and Morris are best friends who have spent a lifetime deep in the closet. Barry is now making making feeble attempts to come out after 60 years, desperate to live out his retirement years with his one true love. Barry walks us through lots of introspection, showing us he is truly a crusty old man with a good heart, quick to acknowledge his cowardice in staying married to “wifey” and still refusing to identify as a “homosexual,” instead calling himself a “Barry-sexual.”

Ron Butler is the star narrator, easily bouncing between Barry’s strong Jamaican Patois accent and his offspring’s various Jamaican-influenced Queen’s English and generational slang. Robin Miles did a fine job narrating wifey Carmel’s chapters.

Oh My Aching Diaphram!

This is a novel that ticks all of my boxes: the setting is interesting, the characters are attractive, the story is compelling and it is as funny as all get out. So funny that I got funny looks from people on the other side of the street when I fairly shouted with laughter. This is a real tour de force dealing with family, secrecy and why there may always be a downlow. Barrington
Walker is a retired autoworker and property owner who immigrated from Antigua (said An ti ga, Antigua is in Guatemala) to London fifty years earlier. He is a father, grandfather and a secretly gay man who is being driven crazy by his church loving wife, Carmel. The dual narration from Robin Miles and Ron Butler really captures the many voices of London and Antigua making the story even more heartbreaking and funny.