I just finished reading ‘Shuggie Bain’, Douglas Stuart’s first novel, winner of the 2020 Booker Prize and finalist for the National Book Award. It’s a great, wonderful book that I enjoyed but not the book to read if you’re looking for an uplifting tale or a happy ending.
Set in the dreary Glasgow of the 1980’s when the shipbuilding and coal industries had been destroyed thanks, in no small part, to Margaret Thatcher and her cronies.
Shuggie Bain is the story of a young boy growing up in a dysfunctional family amid disastrous economic turmoil. Shuggie’s mother, Agnes, is an unrepentant alcoholic, and his father, Shug, is a taxi driver who despises his wife’s addiction to “the drink,” cheats on her whenever the opportunity arises, and ultimately abandons her to a low-income housing development called Pithead, a depressing colliery where residents survive on government handouts.
Shuggie’s half-brother and half-sister soon manage to escape from an environment they recognize as untenable, leaving Shuggie to take care of a mother who, for the most part, is so inebriated that she is unable to attend to herself. At the same time, Shuggie is forced to face his inability to be like the other boys his age and, as he enters his teens, begins to struggle with his own sexual identity.
Early in the book there’s a scene where little Shuggie is playing with empty cans of Tennent’s beer that have pinup beauties on the side. He strokes their tinny hair and makes them talk to each other. His father is proud, thinking the boy is going to be quite the lusty man but his mother looks on realizing what’s really going on.
It’s a desolate existence for the most part. When Agnes spends all her government support money on drink, they pry open the electric meter to get the coins inside. All the while, Shuggie is loyal to her and takes care of her to the end. It’s a story of hope and despair. Some things can be fixed or overcome; others cannot. Most of the people in Shuggie’s life think they don’t count anymore, that they’ve been cast aside. It’s a feeling I believe some in our own country have and it’s not good.
There’s plenty of Scottish working-class dialect in the book and it takes a few pages to get used to it, but the book is very well-written and you’ll get used to it.
It’s a great book, immersive and affecting. You will say ‘wow’ when you finish it.
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