Title: Shuggie Bain
Author: Douglas Stuart
Genre: Historical Fiction
Blurb: Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. Under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink. Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her--even her beloved Shuggie. A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction.
Me: This debut novel about a young boy and his mother in 1980s Scotland has taken the literary world by storm. It just won the Man Booker, and I was excited to finally pick it up and get to read it myself. The praise is so well-deserved; the book was unapologetically beautiful and real.
The Ups: I think the best type of writing is where the reader barely notices the words are there, where the sentences flow so naturally that you feel completely absorbed in the moment with occasional little moments of joy or astonishment at a really beautiful sentence. It takes writers SO long to get to this point, to escape the desire to be overly stylized and "unique." Stuart has somehow done it in his first book.
The writing was so beautifully natural, so vivid. It wasn't necessarily special, like I wouldn't be able to pick out Stuart's writing in a group of stories, but it just told the story exactly how it needed to be told. The reader falls for Shuggie pretty early. He has the innocence of a young child, and it's obvious that he's exceptionally bright and caring despite his difficult environment. The unexpected love as a reader, I would say, is actually not for Shuggie himself but for his mother, Agnes. Her struggle with alcoholism is pretty much the point which the book revolves around. It's incredibly sad, and frustrating, to see how she neglects her children and continues her destructive habits. But over the course of the novel, you begin to see her a little bit as Shuggie sees her: someone who is fatally flawed but who has a grace and a love for her son that the world rarely gives him.
I also loved that Stuart really made this setting come alive. I have never been to Scotland, much less in the tenement or mining communities in the eighties, but I felt the spirit of the place in the dialogue, descriptions, in just the writing itself. The drab and dust, but also the raw heart and resilience of the places and people were so clear. I just felt so absorbed by this book. It read effortlessly, and I think the characters will stick with me for a while.
The Downs: Despite the beauty of the writing and the realness of the characters, I felt that the book was a bit more of an emotional slow burn than a sort of catharsis. It didn't necessarily make the book boring at all, but I think it made the ending perhaps less meaningful than some other books that I've read with a similar scope and voice (A Little Life comes to mind!). I definitely felt like the book had enough closure, but also I wonder if it would have been more emotionally affecting if Stuart had gone deeper on that final scene with Agnes.
Also a very random pet peeve about this book: Stuart doesn't understand how hair works, especially women's hair. There is SO much hair ripping and tearing in this book during moments where... hair shouldn't rip that easily. It really started to annoy me after the third or fourth time.
Overall: Definitely worth a read. Touching and memorable, even if it is kind of a low simmer emotionally.
Rating: 4 kisses!
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