User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Winner of the Booker Prize 2020!
Without doubt, Douglas Stuart has written one of the books of the year, a coming of age story, an unflinching, bleak and emotionally heartbreaking portrayal of a beaten dysfunctional family and Glasgow community, suffering the agonising pains and despair of the Thatcher era in the 1980s. To this day, despite Margaret Thatcher's death, I have yet to forgive her for her divisive ideological policies and her all out war against Britain's poor and working classes, highlighted by her notorious claim that there was no such thing as society, as she laid waste to large sections of society with the huge rise in unemployment and poverty, devastating communities and lives. She is the precursor to what followed in the UK, right through to the recent times with the Bullingdon boys, David Cameron and George Osborne, making the poor, disabled and vulnerable pay for the 2008 crisis through the disaster that was austerity, laying the ground for what is happening today.
With illusions of a better life, the beautiful Agnes Bain leaves her husband for a taxi driver, a poor excuse of a philandering human being who fails and abandons her. A firm believer in the importance of how things look as opposed to how they are, a proud Agnes puts up a good front with her false teeth as her world falls apart, and she begins to drink as a coping mechanism for the failures in her life, becoming a slave to her addictions. In this movingly profound story of the young Hugh 'Shuggie' Bain from the age of 6 to 17, Shuggie is neglected and abandoned, even by his siblings, Leek and Catherine, entrusted with the duties and responsibilities of caring for Agnes, believing and hoping that his love for his mother will be enough. His life is further plagued by not fitting in the ideals of masculinity, a misfit viewed as not quite right, bullied, in a relentlessly dark narrative of violence and abuse.
This is powerful, desperate, tragic and harrowing storytelling, taking its toll on the reader, there is nevertheless, amongst the grim realities of life, slight slivers of light and hope. Stuart is with his characters, so compassionate, and understanding of the all too important context, for example, as Agnes is failed, so like the domino effect, she in turn goes on to fail others. Even as my heart broke for Shuggie and the life and world that is his fate, I cannot regret reading this superb debut, it is remarkable, so beautifully written with its terrific dialogue, and absolutely unforgettable. A novel that captures a forgotten history and impoverished Glasgow that paid the price with the horrors experienced by people and communities for policies designed by politicians to promote the inequalities that blight our country. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
This is a
very dark, depressing, gritty read. It also might be a challenging one for those unfamiliar with the Glasgow dialect.
Shuggie Bain is a story of substance addiction and abuse. Think of a possible content warning and it is probably in this book. Graphic rape. Physical and emotional abuse. And beyond these overt horrors, the narrative itself is just so...
bleak. It seems fitting that the cover is in black and white because Stuart makes this world feel so grim and grey with his descriptions. Even the most basic of actions feel ugly.
Hugh "Shuggie" Bain is a young boy just trying to get by in Thatcher-era Scotland. This novel - though the author's note makes you wonder how much of it is truly fiction - is about Shuggie's complex feelings towards his mother, Agnes, who is both his hero and a woman who is falling apart. She has been abandoned by Shuggie's father, alone with her kids and her alcoholism, trying to find small pieces of happiness in a life that feels so out of her control.
What makes this novel so sad is that you really can feel what it is to love so deeply a person who is failing you so terribly. Shuggie - and Douglas Stuart, I think - loves Agnes. He could be just another story about a neglected kid with an alcoholic parent, but this is nothing so one-dimensional as that. Even at her worst, it is impossible not to feel sympathy for Agnes. To feel her wanting to try, even as she fails.
There are demons big and small in this book. The kind that are selfish people who behave unkindly, the kind that are addictions which enslave a person, and the kind that made the Thatcher era such a misery for the Northern working class. I understand this culture too well. I grew up in Yorkshire, and the effect of this time was so great, the horrors so deeply-engraved that many people from working class areas still whisper the name "Thatcher" like a curse.
I would not recommend reading this unless you are in a good mental place. It is a horrible, dreary read, there's no doubt, but if you see past the layers of ugliness and allow this to rip your heart out, I also think there's a lot of love to be found in here.
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Rating: really liked it
Reminded me of A Little Life. Outstanding, immersive, raw storytelling. Compelling characters.
Rating: really liked it
Worthy winner of the Booker Prize 2020 I only read this book from the shortlist but I am so glad it won.
While I am not following the Booker Prize this year, I’ve decided to read Shuggie Bain because of a flood of positive reviews on my GR feed. Although the subject was bleak, I decided that the praise cannot be for nothing and that it will be worth it. It was, although it wasn’t easy to go through it.
The book is the portrait of a failed poor family in 1980’ s Glasgow during Thatcher, not a luminous period in the City’s history. The period was plagued by high unemployment and its aftermath: poverty, violence, drugs, prostitution, alcoholism. First of all, Agnes Bain would have been a more suitable name for the novel. She is Shuggie’s mother and an alcoholic. Actually, the whole book circles around her fight with the addiction and her misery, triggered by the gap between her poor choices in men and her overreaching ambitions in life. With an absent father and two older siblings who found their own methods to get away from home, Shuggie starts to take care of his mum at an age where he should only be playing. He helps her undress and makes her tea in the mornings to help with the hangover. He later learns to read the signs and predict the state of her drinking stupor so he can find the best ways to attend to her needs. Agnes drinks all their money and they often have no food. In order to maintain the appearances of wealth she spends more money than she receives from social aid on things bought from a catalogue. However, she keeps her standards, always dresses immaculately and wears perfect makeup, even at her worst. Besides having to take care of her mother and school. Shuggie faces an additional struggle, the coming to terms with his sexuality, his need to be normal and the bullying he has to suffer from the others kids. Despite everything, Shuggie fiercely loves and protect his mother and that is what makes the novel even more heartbreaking. Agnes loves him back but her affection is not enough to make her quit “the drink”.
For this debut novel, the author got inspired to write his book from his own childhood and his mother struggle with the drink. Although the author is also gay he said that the novel is not autobiographical.
Shuggie Bain is bleak, heartbreaking, agonizing and tragic but it also offers some glimmers of hope here and there. The book is bit on the long side, a bit repetitive but it was necessary so it can make the reader understand the cycles between sobriety and drunkenness and alcoholic goes through in hie/her struggle.
I both listened and read the novel and I can say that the audiobook enhanced my experience. The dialogues are written in Glaswegian slang and the narrator does an excellent job differentiating between the characters and the way they speak, which also means his accent is sometimes very strong. Having said that, after an hour or so of listening I got used to it and had no problem to continue.
I hope this novel reaches the shortlist and maybe even wins the Booker prize.
Rating: really liked it
CONGRATS... WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
Huge congrats on the National award nomination
My heart and gut were grievously affected by this story.
I learned a lot. I felt even more.
I’ve already discussed this book in length with my husband- making him read parts with me. I tried to comprehend the brutal conditions...
I was a little confused in the beginning.... needing to read each sentence slowly.
I didn’t feel familiar -enough- with the setting or history.
I’m ashamed to say how little I knew about the 1980’s - 1990’s - poverty-ravaged Thatcher-era in Glasgow.... horrific devastation - overflowing with hunger, unemployment, working-class struggles, drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gambling, bullying, violence, and despair in Scotland’s biggest city.
I spent a couple of hours ( thanks to this book)... reading up on the Thatcher era. I even discovered some photos ( thank you Google), by a French photographer, Raymond Depardon, whose photos expressed profoundly the bleak conditions.
The photos are worth viewing along side reading this book.
Douglas Stuart has given us - scene after scene - a blistering slice of reality—which boggles the harmony of my mind—evoking disarming emotions.
It’s novels like these with historical substance- that helps us make sense - have compassion- of so much senselessness.
When reading parts of this book with my husband, Paul,....
“Slumdog millionaire” came to his mind....
John Irving characters came to mine.
“Shuggie Bain”....
.....exposes the realities of the shocking depths of poverty... with vivid characters whose weaknesses were both credible and compelling.
Douglas Stuart’s affection for his characters are palpable and his skill as a writer undeniable.
My tummy did somersaults a few times...
Sentences were crushingly unsettling. Yet, it’s the characters - especially Shuggie Bain- I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
The dialect was powerful - enriching characterization , geographical, and social background of the Bain family.
There was a civil war going on.
With mass unemployment, drunk people staggering through the streets... communities were collapsing.
The* Bain Family* was the prime focus during daunting times...during a time when leaders in government were greedy capitalists...
... relevant to times today.
Agnes Bain...( whose beauty is compared to with Elizabeth Taylor)...is
an alcoholic. She stands tall ....after a binge of drinking - with her make-up and clothes...
I thought about a line I heard years ago:
“when you feel crappy on the inside, dress it up on the outside”. Agnes was that type of woman.
Her second husband, Hugh, (Shug), was a philandering taxi driver, scumbag human being. Slim and evil are appropriate words to describe him.
At the start of this story,
Agnes and Hugh live on the sixteenth floor in a tiny apartment with their three children - ( Leek, Catherine, Shuggie), and Agnes parents: Lizzie and Wullie Campbell.
You’ll get to know everyone.
The Bain family was living on the edge with devastating dysfunction...
.....( hurting each other - neglect & abandonment-escape -addictions were the norm)....
As Shuggie, ( youngest in the Bain family), comes-of-age, we are reminded and awaken to the what happens to children when they grow up with debilitating chronic chaos.
I don’t want to say too much about Shuggie- himself- other than to say he will live in your thoughts long after the book ends.
Love, loss, abuse, addictions, leaving...
trauma, loneliness, being different, a ‘mother/son’ connection... are themes explored.
Beneath all the pain there is hope coursing through this novel. There is redemption- but nothing is sugar-coated.
We are not left with a fluffy ending...( tears filled my eyes at the end)....
Stuart does not sneer at domestic heartache - or infuse it with doom - he depicts realism.
And REALISM IS SAD!!!
His affection for his characters are palpable and his skill as a writer undeniable.
Thank you Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and Douglas Stuart for the opportunity to read this book early.
“Shuggie Bain” will be released in February, 2020.
Highly recommended!
Rating: really liked it
Shuggie Bain is one of those novels where, for me, the form let down the content. This is a story about alcoholism, abuse, and poverty, and it is unremitting in its depiction of those things. For all its heavy subject matter, though, it left me largely impassive. It felt like the more the narrative wanted me to feel, the less I actually felt.
The crux of my problem with this novel is its form--that is, its narrative structure and writing style.
The writing in Shuggie Bain falls under the weight of its story, not necessarily on a sentence-by-sentence basis, but on a more holistic level.The narrative, here, suffers from a kind of stasis: it's repetitive, lacking dynamism in both character and plot. Over and over again we see Agnes, the main character in
Shuggie Bain aside from Shuggie himself, engage in the same cycle of abuse: she drinks, she gets herself into increasingly precarious situations, she tries to quit drinking, she is seemingly on the mend, and then she relapses. Of course, I can recognize that this kind of cycle exists for many of those who have struggled with substance abuse; I never expected Agnes to get over years of substance abuse after a single attempt to quit drinking. My issue is that narratively, it didn't make for very engaging reading. It's one thing to be reading about the same plot point happening over and over again; it's another thing to have that plot point be about substance abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. The end result was that not only did I start to get impatient with the novel, but I also just started to feel increasingly distanced from and indifferent to its story.
More than that, though,
I felt like I never got to know the characters beyond their suffering. There were a few scenes here and there that had genuinely earnest and caring character interactions, but beyond that it was just more of the same: characters either inflicting or being subjected to abuse.
To put it simply,
Shuggie Bain largely prioritized the situational over the psychological: the overwhelming need to buy alcohol when you're already extremely financially straitened, the binge drinking and subsequent blackouts, the vulnerability that comes with being a child of an alcoholic mother.
What I wanted from Shuggie Bain was to emphasize the psychological alongside the situational, to give me a closer look into the thoughts and emotions of its characters, to make me feel like I knew them and not just the things they did or the things that happened to them.
I want to tread carefully here because I don't want my criticism of this book to be "it was too depressing." Depressing things happen in the world; it feels like a bit of a disservice to call experiences that many people have gone through "too depressing," especially for a novel like this where, I believe, at least some of the story is autobiographical. My problem is not that it was a depressing story, but that it wasn't a particularly well told one.
I know I've been talking about the form and content of a novel as if they're two separate things, but really when it comes down to it, they're inextricable.
The content doesn't exist without the form. When a story isn't told well, it doesn't matter how good or bad it is; the end result is just a poorly told story.
(Thanks so much Grove Atlantic for providing me with an e-ARC of this via NetGalley!)
Rating: really liked it
BOOKER PRIZE 2020 WINNERI think my heart grew three sizes reading this.
Shuggie Bain is a young boy growing up in 80s Glasgow, with an alcoholic mother, absent father, and a dawning sense that he just doesn’t fit the same mould as all the other kids. It is a stark, evocative novel that presents both its setting and its characters with deep empathy.
We follow Shuggie from ages six to seventeen, but it is not much of a childhood as he spends most of it looking after his mother. Really, this novel is her tragic story and could just as easily have been titled
Agnes Bain. She is both cause and effect of the wreckage of Shuggie’s life, coloured as it is by poverty and violence. She fails him and is failed by others. Meanwhile, Shuggie struggles with the standards of masculinity required of him by his peers, and the hopelessness pervading a community put out of work and with nowhere to go. Your heart breaks for Shuggie, Agnes, and everyone else in this forlorn place.
It’s hard to explain why a 450-page novel that is so bleak and devastating is worth your time. Not everyone likes sad stories, and even those who do need to be in right mood for something like this.
Shuggie Bain is immersive, authentic, extremely moving, and a remarkable debut.
Rating: really liked it
Rarely does it happen that a novel full of despair, bleakness and solitude engages me so deeply and fully. Reading the story of Shuggie and his family was never interrupted by a ray of something positive or uplifting. This novel is so real that makes you hurt and and the same time you do not wish to leave Shuggie with his mother, an alcoholic, but quite the contrary, you pray for a little sunshine at the end of the day.
Agnes's devastating addiciton destroys what is left of her family, with her daughter moving out to another continent, and her older son giving up on her despite efforts to help out. The youngest, Shuggie, clings to his mother and in a most caring way looks after her.
This is not an easy novel to follow, with a raw depiction of alcoholism and the destructive impact it has. It is the disease but it is also the place, Glasgow in the 1980s, after Ms Thacher's regulations that closed down the mines and left thousands of people unemployed and destitute. The district (scheme) where the Bains live is the place that can offer nothing but hostility and lack of prospects.
I do recommend this splendid piece of writing but there is a warning to those who will decide to pick it up: prepare for a book that will not make you smile and happy. On the other hand, this book will not leave you indifferent, not a chance!
I had a wonderful BR with Ceecee and Peter who made terrific comments and supported me with regard to the language in which the book is written as I did struggle a little with the dialect and slang. Ceecee and Peter, thanks!
Rating: really liked it
I know it sounds cliche, but there’s no other way to describe this story as other than gut wrenching. It’s also beautifully written in authentic dialect which gives a feel of authenticity. If that’s not enough to make it feel real, you’ll think so when you read the first sentence of the Acknowledgements at the end.
This is a stark look at the impact of family dysfunction and alcoholism and the impact on the children who struggle through it. If this story of a family in Glasgow in the 1980’s doesn’t break your heart, I’m not sure what will. Shuggie is one of those characters you just might love and never forget. He is that for me.
I received a copy of this book from Grove Press through Edelweiss.
Rating: really liked it
this is a difficult book to review.
i cant really say it was enjoyable to read because its such a depressing and gritty story. it definitely requires the reader to be in the right headspace in order to get through some of the content. ive never personally known anyone who has struggled with alcoholism, but wow. what a horrific disease.
what i really got out of this book is just how much effort someone is willing to give for a person they love, even when they are constantly letting you down. thats why i found shuggie and his siblings to be the characters i wanted to read about the most. i really felt for them and their situation. which i why i found myself often skimming parts that talked about the neighbours or what the parents were up to. i found those sections of the book paled in comparison to the children. i just wish a book named after a character had more of that particular character.
but its a compelling story, nonetheless, and i can definitely see why it won the booker prize.
↠ 3.5 stars
Rating: really liked it
No book I've read ever touched me more than this incredible novel. To know that Stuart lost his own mother to alcoholism at 16 makes the story even more poignant and its telling all the braver.
Brilliant. Genuinely brilliant.
Rating: really liked it
Well-deserved winner of the Booker Prize 2020This, ladies and gentlemen, is a true gem, a wonderfully empathetic, but also tough novel about the son of an alcoholic mother growing up in Glasgow during the Thatcher era, and this debut might become all the rage this award season. Stuart's novel centers on young Shuggie, whose beautiful mother Agnes left her first husband - a steady and honest, but not very exciting man - because she dreamt of a more glamorous, affluent and adventurous life with her lover Shug. Caught up in her own want and daydreams, she marries the womanizing and abusive taxi driver and has her third child with him (Hugh, called Shuggie), but when Agnes realizes that he will not live up to her ideals and turn her life around, she starts wrecking herself with alcohol - and Shug leaves. Shuggie grows up feeling responsible for his mother, desperately trying to support her while feeling utterly helpless - at the same time, he struggles with his queerness, faces abuse and suffers under the oppressive poverty that surrounds him.
Stuart introduces us to a child who tries to take responsibility for overstrained grown-ups, his siblings who find different ways to cope, a woman whose happiness is fully dependent on the men she is with, a whole neighborhood going down with the collapsing industries, and working-class men and women who see their pride dwindle. Until today, Thatcher is a much-hated figure in Scotland, as during her time as Prime Minister, heavy industry pretty much collapsed, mines closed, the financial market was deregulated, and unemployment rocketed. Many workers felt like not only their livelihood, but their dignity was at risk (see the miners's strike 1984-1985), and Glasgow University found out that the rise in drug deaths in the 1980s was linked to the rise in inequality - the study talks about an "erosion of hope".
This "erosion of hope" is exactly what the characters in the novel experience. Stuart's writing is strongest when he paints individual, bleak pictures, grim vignettes about fear, brutality, surrender and self-hatred. Drunk and helpless, Agnes faces sexual assault, Shuggie is bullied and attacked, and the equally poor neighbors are fighting all kinds of demons, but they can all hardly find the strength to act in solidarity - they are overwhelmed by the cards life has dealt them. Meanwhile, Agnes' parents blame themselves, and especially her father, a worker of a different generation, has trouble stomaching what has become of his daughter - not that unworldly, selfish Agnes doesn't carry responsibility for her actions, she clearly does, but the reality that surrounds her makes it a lot harder for her to get up again, become sober and take another chance. Still, there are also glimpses of hope, there is love (although love is sometimes not enough) and the power of empathy and forgiveness.
A lot of dialogue is written in Scottish dialect, which gives the text an even grittier, more authentic feel. Stuart crafts elaborate scenes to illustrate (but never openly explain) his points, adding lots of atmosphere and giving intricate descriptions of people's looks, movements and behaviors: Agnes in a wet fur coat, shaking from withdrawal; Shuggie in his wellies stealing copper with his brother; balding Shug driving through Glasgow in his taxi - there are so many memorable scenes that shine through their almost visual quality and emotional intelligence.
This is a novel about a ravaged family in a desperate neighborhood, a story about addiction, and an evocation of a period of Scottish history that still reverberates. It is a compassionate text by a writer who knows what he is talking about, a companion piece to Trainspotting (not although, but because it is so different), a book not to be missed.
You can learn more about the German translation in my radio piece and in our latest podcast episode.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 I knew it! When I was only fifty pages or so into the book, I had the feeling it was going to break my heart. It did. Glasgow in the eighties, many live in council housing, a day to day existence. These people are so messed up, poor and struggling, trying to find money, love, desperate beyond belief. Agnes turns to drink, anything to escape the mess she has made of her life. Her three children, try their best, but it is never enough. One leaves home as soon as she can, leaving her mother and two brothers far behind.
It is Shuggie though who breaks my heart and to s certain extent his older brother Leek. They both have responsibilities they should not have at their age. Shuggie though has an additional struggle, as he doesn't fit in anywhere. His sexual orientation makes him stand out, he walks different, doesn't like sports. Ultimately he is picked on and bullied. He also feels if his mother just realized how much he love her, she would stop drinking.
This story feels do very real. Children that grow up in households where ones parent is an alcoholic, will recognize the authenticity of the way the children act. How they often blame themselves, take on responsibilities way too early. Believe me I know. I think that is why this book hit me so hard.
A terrific book, full of emotion and the struggles of a parent who can't face reality. A parent who struggles with a fearsome addiction. Yet, reading this one can't help but feel for her too.
ARC from Netgalley.
Rating: really liked it
First of all this novel shouldn’t have been titled
Shuggie Bain as this story isn’t actually about him but about his mother and how her lifestyle and choices might have (eventually) shaped her son and his life. Everything about him was too nuanced to allow me to empathise with him and everything about his mother was too explicit for me to give a damn about her; and how many beers and glasses of vodka she needed to get drunk.
I know there’s always some kind of manipulative literary device behind every story that has ever been told but some authors tend to use it to the point where I spend more time wondering how their minds worked when telling the story than about the story itself. Because if an author decides to start a story with an older guy sexually harassing a kid, I want to know more, how the kid coped, the impact of this on him and maybe any consequences the pervert should’ve faced by the way!
But no, from that scene we go backwards in time instead and learn how many drinks and cigarettes the kid’s mother was having every day! Pages and pages of drinks and the mother’s frustrations and delusions. Plus a few mentions of the father’s love affairs, in case we were interested!
Speaking of the father, a taxi driver, his part of the story was what I think it makes for a dark and wonderful kind of read; Glasgow’s dark streets and alleys in the dead of night were wonderfully described, but unfortunately the guy didn’t have enough imagination to do anything else apart from thinking about new love conquests (and how to get rid of the old ones).
I’ve come across a few reviews of this novel recently and in general I can see people loved it. They say it’s dark; it’s not that dark guys, they say it’s bleak (aha!); nope, I’ll have to disagree again (sorry)! Finally it’s depressing; ok, I can agree about it being depressing but I’m not sure I felt the same kind of depressing feelings as those reviewers though!
I think that, perhaps, there’s some personal reasons for me not to have enjoyed this as much as I thought I would and definitely not as much as other readers did. All the poverty and hopelessness in this story seemed like heaven to me when compared with the life story of some (very) close people I know and care about.
No, I’m not making comparisons (I know there’s no way to measure suffering) but can you imagine, for example, what it would fell like to grow up with no parents at all (for some really nasty reasons); from the age of eight in a house with absolutely no conditions; and having your eleven year old brother as your only support till you both grow up? To be honest, and now that I’m thinking about it, I just realised I actually know a lot of real awful life stories involving children, but that’s not actually the point here.
The point is that I saw loads of potential in this one, but it ended up not having enough stamina for my liking. I only hope that next time Mr. Stuart would chose to tell us a story from his heart and not from his forgiving brain.
3 stars only because for a debut novel the writing was very good.
Rating: really liked it
So happy that Shuggie Bain has won the 2020 Booker Prize! You can watch my live reaction to the ceremony and an interview with Douglas Stuart immediately after he won the award here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxu5dYhyQFY
This must be one of the most powerful accounts of alcoholism that I've ever read. “Shuggie Bain” follows the early life of its eponymous hero, but really this novel and Shuggie himself are dedicated to his mother Agnes. In the early 1980s she's raising her children in a Scottish mining town whose workforce has been stripped of its livelihood because of Thatcher's policies. With a clear-eyed detail the story shows the reality of her increasing dependency on drinking: the self-deception and the faltering attempts to deceive those around her, the schemes to obtain a dozen cans of Special Brew, the blackouts and humiliation, the men who prey upon her or enable her, the women who gossip about her and join her in drinking sessions, the way drinking makes her unemployable and even more dependant on benefits, how alcohol takes priority over food when shopping at the grocery store and how her children are left with nothing to eat. All the while adolescent Shuggie maintains a steadfast belief that his mother will get better even after the rest of her family abandons her. He's a sensitive, effeminate boy labelled as “no right” by many of the locals and it's heartbreaking how Agnes' alcoholism eventually comes between them as well. But this novel also captures the warmth, humour and humanity in its characters' lives. This is an intimate, gracefully-told story about a very ugly situation which expands to say much larger things about the way social and economic issues affect the lives of working class families.
Read my full review of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart on LonesomeReader
