54 pages • 1 hour read
Bernardine EvaristoMr Loverman
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Art of Losing It (Saturday, May 15, 2010)”
Barry has been looking after Daniel for a week. Barry respects his discipline in studying; at the same age, Barry was only interested in Morris. Daniel is studying in Carmel’s front room. She has decorated it to her own taste, and both Barry and Maxine despise the style. Barry refers to Carmel as “the Goddess of Bad Taste” (191), and Maxine refers to her mom’s style as “beyond kitsch.” Barry’s experience in a history of art class further soured him toward Carmel’s décor. In that class, he had a sexual affair with a classmate, Stephen. Barry was in awe of Stephen’s apartment: Its “wood and metal, leather and brick” seemed to represent the possibility of life with another man (192). Barry’s affair with Stephen continued until Stephen required a romantic relationship from Barry that he could not commit to.
Barry allows Daniel to go out with his friends to unwind after his exam preparation, though Donna has strictly prohibited this. Barry wakes up at 2:37 a.m. to loud music blaring; he first confuses it for the sound of a train moving underneath him, as it vibrates the whole house. When he goes downstairs to investigate, he is disturbed by the thick stench of sensi, which is Caribbean slang for marijuana. When he gets closer to the sound, he is appalled by the music’s lyrics, which are about “killing a nasty batty boy” (198).
Barry discovers Daniel and his intoxicated friends in Carmel’s front room. He is angered by the mess they’ve made and the broken state of Carmel’s ornaments. He confronts the teenagers, specifically calling out their “homophobic” music. The teenagers are shocked by this callout and tell him he would not be upset unless he were gay himself. Outraged, Barry confirms that he is gay while yelling at the teenagers.
Daniel is embarrassed by his grandfather’s admission and tells Barry that he’s shaming him, but Barry defends himself and insists that Daniel is in the wrong. Barry chases all the boys out of his home and threatens to call the police. Barry now believes Daniel to be just as bad as his absent father, Frankie.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Song of Desire (1990)”
Carmel’s work friends at Hackney Council—Joan, Theresa, and Mumtaz—have always gossiped about the attractive men around the office and in their lives. Although she has been working at the council for a decade, Carmel has kept her own marital affairs a secret.
Finally, Carmel opens up about the lack of intimacy in her relationship with Barry to her work friends. They give her a makeover that boosts her confidence, and she becomes more open to discussing her desires. She realizes she could never have the same conversations with her Antiguan friends. Her coworkers tell her that Reuben Balázs, who works in Town Planning, is infatuated with her. Carmel becomes increasingly aware of how much he likes her.
Carmel becomes comfortable debating Reuben, a leftist radical, on socialism and conservatism. Reuben gets her lots of gifts, such as various plants that she keeps in her office alongside pictures of her daughters. Carmel realizes that when she teases Rueben about getting a new suit or shoes, he listens and takes her advice seriously. Although Carmel has promised herself that she will not cheat (the way she suspects Barry does), she becomes preoccupied with sexual fantasies of Reuben. At the end of the chapter, the frustration becomes too much too bear, and Carmel and Rueben have sex in his locked office.
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Art of Family (Tuesday, May 18, 2010)”
Maxine wakes up Barry in the bathtub. He’s wearing the same clothes he did the night he chased Daniel out of the house. Maxine forces her father to shower, eat, and drink water to recover from his hangover. She warns Barry that Donna is back and that she is angry that neither Barry nor Daniel has been answering her texts.
Barry reveals to Maxine that he has no clue where Daniel could be. Just as Maxine discovers Carmel’s broken ornaments, Donna barges into the house and starts calling for Daniel. Barry tells Donna that he doesn’t know where his grandson is. He tells the story of confronting Daniel and his friends for being drunk and blaring their music, but he omits the detail about revealing his orientation to Daniel. Donna quickly makes some phone calls and tracks Daniel down at a friend’s house. She tells Daniel that the situation is not his fault and tells him that he has now learned that alcohol is bad for him.
Donna advises keeping Barry and Daniel’s falling-out a secret from Carmel, who had to endure a lot of stress during her father’s funeral. When Donna leaves, Maxine asks Barry what truly happened, as she could tell that he was very nervous when Donna was on the phone. Maxine also asks why Morris is not helping him. Maxine insists that Barry tell her the truth and threatens to call Daniel herself.
Barry explains that he and Morris have been seeing each other since they were teenagers but stops short of revealing that he’s planning on leaving Carmel for Morris. Maxine shocks her father when she says she has always known that he’s gay. She commends Barry for finally coming out to her but insists that he cannot tell either Carmel or Donna. She believes that they would both kill him. Furthermore, she advises that he pay Daniel off to keep him quiet and that he apologize to Morris for making him upset.
When Maxine leaves, Donna returns with a lot of food to properly feed Barry. She apologizes for shouting at him earlier and recognizes that Daniel can be a “prick.” She is scared that she is going to be all alone when he leaves for university. Barry asks her what she wants from a man, and she shares a long list of expectations, including being “a very successful and solvent professional” and being completely accepting of her “with no criticisms” (231). When Barry asks her if her expectations are a bit unrealistic, she gets angry and blames Barry for her problems with men. Because of how Barry treated Carmel, Donna feels she can never expect happiness in a relationship with a man. She also shares how scared she was as a child when Barry would come home drunk and pick fights with Carmel. She was later envious when Maxine arrived and Barry treated her with so much attention. Finally, she reveals that she once caught Barry cheating. As a teenager, she saw him leave what she believed to be a brothel at the cemetery. She tailed him for a few weeks and caught him returning to the cemetery repeatedly. She says that for over 30 years, she hasn’t shared this information with Carmel or Maxine to protect them.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
This section further highlights the problems of Anti-Gay Bias, Violence, and the Fear of Coming Out in heteronormative societies. Even though Daniel was educated and raised in the supposedly progressive city of London, Barry discovers Daniel and his friends listening to music with anti-gay lyrics, indicating how normalized such attitudes are. Similarly, when Barry comes out, Daniel tells Barry that he is “disrespecting” and “shaming” him, implying that Barry’s orientation is shameful. Heteronormativity also informs Donna’s belief that she has caught Barry sleeping with other women. It’s as if Barry being gay is outside her framework of understanding, so she assumes that even Barry’s deceit and adultery are of a heterosexual nature.
The teenagers’ disrespect toward Barry outrages him, and he comes out as gay while confronting them. This is the first time he has explicitly identified as gay, and the moment is all the more significant for the bigotry that prompts it; in coming out, Barry uses the slur from the music itself—“cocksucker”—as though refusing to be ashamed of it. Barry soon regrets the emotional decision, but such emotionally driven outpourings recur throughout this section due to suppressed emotions finding an outlet, developing the theme of Deception, Desire, and the Repression of Emotional Truths. For example, decades of Barry’s sexual neglect have led to Carmel repressing her own sexual desires and needs. Though she is committed to her marriage, she ends up cheating on Barry with a work colleague. The “Song” chapter explores how her desire can no longer be repressed, to the extent that “even the hole puncher assume[s] erotic overtones” (208).
Donna’s confrontation of her father also stirs up buried emotions. Donna has suppressed her knowledge of Barry’s adultery for 30 years to protect her mother and sister; she has had to process her feelings about his infidelity all on her own. This feeds the resentment she feels toward her father, and she finally blames him for all the issues she has faced in her own relationships with men. This acts as a revelation to Barry as much as Barry’s orientation was a revelation to Daniel. Characters are stuck in secrecy and repression for decades until their emotional truths are revealed in moments of explosive conflict. Even when Barry finally comes out to a member of his family, Maxine, he continues to omit details and keep secrets. For example, although he tells her about his affair with Morris, he does not tell her about their plans to live together. Though accepting of Barry’s orientation, Maxine also falls into the pattern of secrecy when she insists that Barry cannot tell either Carmel or Donna. This indicates a family environment where being honest is not a possibility.
