Mr Loverman

Mr. Loverman (2013), by Bernardine Evaristo, is an LGBT novel that explores the secret life, internal strife, and conflict of an elderly gay Caribbean immigrant to London named Barry. The novel is concerned with the consequences of Barry’s near lifelong affair with his teenage sweetheart, Morris, and how it destroys the relationships between Barry and his wife, daughter, and grandson. The novel has a nonchronological narrative structure with flashbacks indicating how the past influences the novel’s present. Mr. Loverman also features shifting narrative perspectives, between Barry, a first-person narrator, and a second-person narrator that focalizes his wife’s side of the story; the latter sections also employ a style similar to free verse, often placing paragraph breaks in the middle of sentences. Evaristo submitted the novel toward the completion of her doctorate in creative writing.

Bernardine Evaristo is a decorated author who was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize for her 2019 novel Girl, Woman, Other. She’s the first Black woman to receive the prize since its inception in 1968. Her work is lauded for its exploration of marginalized, intersectional identities. This feature of her work is seen in Mr.