Shuggie Bain A Novel

Bought to life by Angus King on audiobook. Free from BorrowBox. A great book throughout

I absolutely loved sweet Shuggie Bain. Heartbreaking, heartwarming, tender, emotional, perfect!

I was not sure what to expect when I started this book, all I had heard was it was being compared to A Little Life. This made me nervous because I don't want to read a book about someone being traumatized brutally for absolutely no reason. But I was pleasantly surprised by the way that Stuart is able to convey disturbing events without having to go into excruciating detail (essentially leaving it up to the reader's imagination). If I am remembering correctly, there is only one scene where a SA occurs that goes into minor details, but overall is not too horrible. The entire novel I just wanted to give Shuggie a hug and tell him everything was going to be okay because Shuggie deserves WAY better than his parents, Agnes and Shug. This novel deals with addiction, alcoholism, absentee parenting, violence against women, and parent-child dynamics. If you have ever had a parent or someone close to you deal with alcoholism or even just alcohol problems, this book may hit a little too close to home. This novel perfectly encapsulates how being a child and having a parent struggling with addiction (in this case it's the alcohol of course). How helpless you feel, how much you wish you could take their problems away, and wish that your love would be enough for them to stop. Quotes from Shuggie Bain that made me feel something: Shuggie put the phone back on the cradle and stood in the hallway, waiting for her to say something, anything. Agnes could have said anything then, and he would have taken it and he would have forgiven her. He would have sat back at her side and wrapped his arms around her legs. He could starve, as long as they starved together. Shuggie arranged three tea mugs: one with tap water to dry the cracks in her throat, one with milk to line her sour stomach, and the third with a mixture of the flat leftovers of Special Brew and stout that he had gathered from around the house and frothed together with a fork. He knew this was the one she would reach for first, the one that would stop the crying in her bones. Still, Leek thought this new sadness was better than the anger he had felt at first. Sadness made for a better houseguest; at least it was quiet, reliable, consistent.

When I first started Shuggie Bain, I didn't get it. But around 200 pages in, I became obsessed. This is one of those tales that I often struggle to get into as I'm not sure where it's going or what the point of it is. Then one event happens or it suddenly clicks inside me that I'm not supposed to be waiting for a rising plot, I'm supposed to be encompassing all of the mini-plots unraveling within the story and squishing them together into one amazing tale. This is Shuggie Bain. Shuggie Bain is also pain, sorrow, sadness and brutal honesty. It's a must-read but features a fair few trigger warnings.

Copy provided by publisher Update: Had to give it a 5 bc I'm still haunted I love how well the characters (mostly Shuggie, Agnes but Eugene and Leek are among the honorable mentions) and their struggles were portrayed in the book. However, please be cautious bc there's a shitton of trigger warnings and some scenes were really disturbing to read. The writing screamed Scottish, which I found myself fumbling with the slangs at first, but as the story went on, having adapted to the words, it became truly fascinating. Still, I'd rather the author chose a different ending and gave more insights of Thatcher's scheme. Worthy winner, and worth reading (if you are brave enough)

What a lovely reminder that we suffer and watch our loved ones suffer and in midst of all the tragedy, life still goes on.

Douglas Stuart WATCH YOUR BACK

More than anything, this single track of storyline added all flavours of human emotions and suffering. It is a story about a son who is immensely optimistic as well as pragmatic about the life of his family (dysfunctional or not). Shuggie and his mum's relationship over the years while the latter slips under and above alcoholism and how this forces a 9-year-old to come of age too soon. It's a slow burn and a slow candy. Lol did I really read this over 2 months? It's me, not you douglas

A good misery memoir but no more. It is sodden with desperation and with rape. There's a lot of those in the world. But there's more of other things. It’s apparently pretty autobiographical. if Stuart’s lived experience is such and such, who am I to contradict it? Well it's not his experience I take issue with, it's the depiction of the whole city as a depraved concrete jungle. This is about the only place I get to pull an identity card: I’ve lived in the rougher part of the roughest place in Scotland (Paisley). Jakeys shooting up in the hall, rats, rain, far-right billboards. But a book would be basically false if it included only these and not hundreds of hours in a beautiful free library, helpless laughter with your idiot mate, delight in basic things and discounts. Ferguslie 2013 wasn’t as rough as Sighthill 1981, and 14 isn’t 23, but it’s not a million miles. “The men standing around her were only boys, younger than her and probably younger than Leek. They had been smoking and waiting in the dark. With no peace at home they were waiting for someone to molest or for a chance to knife the night watchman” “Rain was the natural state of Glasgow. It kept the grass green and the people pale and bronchial. Its effect on the taxi business was negligible. It was a problem because it was mostly inescapable and the constant dampness was pervasive, so fares might as well sit damp on a bus as damp in the back of an expensive taxi. On the other hand, rain meant that the young lassies from the dancing all wanted to take a taxi home so as not to ruin their stiff hair or their sharp shoes” Anyway it is silly of me to be cross at fiction for not being nonfiction, except that fiction informs you people, and misery memoirs mostly inform you wrong. Here's a line where Stuart admits it: The city was alive below him, and he had never seen a half of it. Now and then fresh air pulled in and out of the sixteenth-floor window, and the women blinked at the sharpness of it. Lizzie drank her cold black tea and watched as the women all descended towards the darkness in their moods. Fresh air always did this to the drunk. The light, gossipy energy was leaving the room and being replaced by something stickier and thicker The logic is fully established by the end of chapter 6 and I would stop there if I had known this. Actually that 80 page novella is a better book I think. Agnes' only real mistake is to seek passion and excitement in place of dour duty. Her punishment for this is extreme but not unrealistic, given the amplifiers around her, booze and poverty. “the way it tasted like fizzy ginger, milk, and porridge all at the same time” “You cheeky streak of piss.” Her false teeth ground together in her tight face. Only her eyes were loose and half-detached, rolling under the waves of the day’s drink.” Glasgow had problems on top of the normal Scottish ones: “Aw, ye missed a great game, a bloody great game.” The man was tutting to himself. “Who do ye support then?” “Celtic,” he lied. He was no Catholic, but it was the shortcut to ending the conversation. The auld man’s face crumpled like a dropped towel. “Oh, fur fuck’s sake, might’ve known ah’d get in a Pape’s taxi.” I never heard any of this shite in my whole childhood, except from visiting Glaswegians. Is there a single male character in this who isn’t predatory, apart from Shug? Yes: Mr Cameron, Catherine’s middle-class boss. (The book is oddly fair to Big Shug, not just a 2D swaggering abuser, whose monologue chapter comes straight after the shocking violence of Blackpool, but which is poetic and only normally predatory.) “Ah. I’ll let you touch my willy.” The driver looked at the boy in the mirror for a while. His eyes sat deep and small in his pink face. They were hard to read. His lips barely moved beneath his moustache. “Son, how old are you?” “Fourteen.” The man didn’t take his eyes from the boy’s face. His head seemed to roll back on to his thick neck, and his moustache danced unhappily” Agnes' father is ultimately revealed as a fool who gives in and reinforces predation. Leek looks predatory and makes camp with predators but isn't. Half of the women too. I wonder how many fourteen year olds there are now, parenting their parents? Luckily fewer than then. Shuggie nodded, slowly and obediently. He had touched it [their mother] last. He could never be free. “would have sat back at her side and wrapped his arms around her legs. He could starve, as long as they starved together”

This book shows the unconditional and heartbreaking love from a child to it's broken mother and the influence of addicted parents on their children. The story is written beautiful and won't let you go.

wow, the kind of book that you read and it has you in your mind for days/ weeks after. this story will stay with me for a long time, heartbreaking and raw.

3.5/5 I might just be emotionally dead inside after reading A Little Life, but I wasn't as in love with this as I thought I'd be. Maybe because it gave me Angela's Ashes vibes which is one of my favorite books of all time, which isn't necessarily a fair comparison but what are you gonna do.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, one week on. Beautiful. ❤️

A stunning debut novel. There are so many powerful, heartbreaking moments in this book. Will write in detail, later.

Astonishing.

Demorou 10 anos a escrever, e isso é mais do que evidente no labor da escrita, não apenas na sua beleza mas no intrincado detalhe com que vai descrevendo cena atrás de cena, representando não apenas o espaço e a ação, mas dando conta do sentir dos vários pontos de vista dos seus personagens. Existe uma sensação de completude, como se cada cena fosse um exercício estudado por Douglas Stuart, trabalhado como se de pequenas jóias se tratassem. Mas não é mera expressão o que aqui temos, nem poderia ser. Ninguém conseguiria chegar a tanto detalhe se não tivesse realmente vivido muito do que ali se conta. Por isso quando pegamos na história de vida de Douglas Stuart e percebemos o decalque, não é apenas o horror do que nos foi contado que nos toca, o tremor acontece ao perceber que foi possível atravessar tudo aquilo e mesmo assim chegar ao topo do mundo da escrita, acrescentando ainda que levou mais 12 anos a publicar, tendo sido recusado 44 vezes pelas editoras. Se o livro termina como uma dor brutal, o reconhecimento da carreira do seu autor oferece-nos a admiração plena e uma esperança de esplendor máximo. "1981, Glasgow. A outrora próspera cidade mineira sufoca sob o jugo férreo das políticas de Margaret Thatcher, lançando milhares de famílias para a miséria. A epidemia do álcool e das drogas aproveita para capturar os mais vulneráveis." Publicado com links em : https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

4.5 stars. Devastating but so beautifully written. I couldn't put it down but also found some parts so hard to read.

My eyes are a little moist. What a novel. It captures Glasgow as a character perfectly.

A deserved Booker Prize this time. Shuggie, a 'wee' boy, growing up with his drunk mother in 1980's Glasgow. She slowly and painfully disintegrates from society while he is finding himself. The story is intimate, honest and gripping. Aye, it wrecked my heart. And love the Scottish!

I think if this had been a bit more tight it might have been a 5 star book for me. I’ve seen it compared to A Little Life, and I can understand that comparison somewhat, but only so far as tone and quality of prose. Where A Little Life stresses and frays emotions to give them a heightened quality, this book usually tends to be less specific, making it more hyper realistic in its depiction of poverty, alcoholism, and patriarchy. Shrugged Bain excels at making each plot beat feel like a recalled biography moment and it relentless dogged the coming-of-age of a young sweet boy with moments that would surely cripple most people. The structure of the book works pretty well, but does feel a bit weird sometimes. Meandering rather than purposeful, and has a strange relationship with time. It bugged me at first but as I got more into it I didn’t mind. I’m not sure there’s anything you’d be surprised about once you are clued into time and place and troubles of the city and characters, but it’s well done for what it is.

I liked the Scottish vernacular and dialogue. I liked all the characters. Some very sad and cruel moments but also some hopeful moments too.

This is a difficult book to rate. It is dark. It is uncomfortable. I found it difficult to continue reading. But you can't stop reading. There is every kind of emotional feeling throughout this book -- trauma, loneliness, love, loss, abandonment, addiction, a role-reversal of the mother-son dynamic, being different, heartless taunting. If any of these are triggers, or if you are in a sad place yourself, this isn't the book for you. Shuggie is the title character, and while he is a constant throughout, he doesn't become the central figure until the last quarter or so of the book. His mother, Agnes, is the central figure throughout most of the book, and her story is tragic. Tragic in today's sense in America, but common in 1980's Scotland, where Margaret Thatcher's policies destroyed the country during this period. A NYT review said, "(The author) shows us lots of monstrous behavior, but not a single monster -- only the damage." It is a book of fiction, but it seems too real. That was verified in the opening line of the author's acknowledgements: "I owe everything to my mother and her struggles, and to my brother who gave me everything he could." Great writing, horrible story. It will be interesting to see if he can duplicate this success.

Couldn't finish - altogether too depressing for me at the moment.