Shuggie Bain

I've just been reading Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, which won last year's Man Booker Prize. It traces the hardships of a family living in poverty in the Glasgow of the 1980s. The central relationship is that of an alcoholic mother and her youngest son Shuggie. The boy tries to protect his mother from herself but at the same time has to contend with bullying and abuse in the community because of his effeminate tendencies. This could all be dismal, depressing stuff in the wrong hands, but the reader quickly realises that Stuart is a very good writer indeed. The narrative flows effortlessly, there are striking images on every page and the characters leap into life. Terrible as many of the events are, they are described without sentimentality and just feel true and real and therefore worth reading about. Totally immersed, I found the denouement very moving. The book richly deserves all the praise it has won. I doubt whether there has ever been a more thorough and convincing portrayal of someone suffering from alcoholic addiction in all literature. I found myself thinking that such intimate detail could only have been the result of personal experience on the author's part and, sure enough, a check online shows that Stuart's own mother was an alcoholic. He's gay (and seems like a nice guy in interviews) and that helps to explain why the character of Shuggie is so beautifully rendered. Do read it if you enjoy a good book.

Thank you for the tip. I've added it to my will have a read someday list when I see it dropping down in price ( as they always eventually do) on Kindle.

Thanks for the reminder and excellent review, snotface. Back in December 2020, my sister offered to buy me the book as one of my Christmas presents. As I had quite a reading backlog, I suggested another present and said I’d buy the paperback version when it is published. According to the UK Amazon website, the paperback version will be released on April 15th, 2021 at a cost of £7.37. (See photo below)

And finally, the hardback version is currently sitting at #2 on The Sunday Times Bestsellers fiction hardbacks list. (See photo below)

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why are some drawn to such depressing works...

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Originally Posted by latintopxxx

why are some drawn to such depressing works...

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Thats actually a genuinely good and interesting question !?

I wonder is it as people can identify in some way with the experiences and narrative in a book that draws them to it, or is it the exact opposite perhaps that its the fact that it's something they have NO knowledge of experience of which makes it fresh and interesting for them to read - or like most things in life somewhere in the middle of those two things perhaps. But it is a good question and I suppose if it can be answered them a publisher could make a lot of money pumping out what we all want to read !?

I didn't find Shuggie Bain to be depressing at all, though it certainly could have been in the hands of a lesser writer. It's not subject matter that is important but the treatment of that subject matter. A good writer connects with the reader, making him feel that 'yes, this is true to life'. He brings insight to the reader and shows how there can be redeeming touches of humanity in the darkest of settings. This is why a book like Primo Levi's If This Is A Man about his time in a Nazi concentration camp has been so widely acclaimed. It moves us with its honesty, moderation and humanity despite the horrors which it unflinchingly describes. For me a depressing book is one which is badly written and lacking in understanding of the human condition. Doesn't matter if the subject matter is all bright and breezy. It's the treatment that counts.

Despite some of the subject matter, alcoholism, addiction and abuse not being an easy read, I found Shuggie Bain to be one of the best novels I have read in a very long time. It left me wanting to know more about Shuggie’s life, but I have not read anything which suggests the author, Douglas Stuart, intends to write a sequel. I was however pleasantly surprised to read that he has written a second novel, although not a sequel. The new novel is called, Young Mungo, which, like the first novel, is also based in Glasgow. It is about the lives of two young men from different religious backgrounds who fall in love. The synopsis below has piqued my interest enough to look forward to its publication on April 14th, 2022.

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From Booker-prize winner Douglas Stuart an extraordinary, page-turning second novel, a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James.

Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in the hyper-masculine and violently sectarian world of Glasgow's housing estates. They should be sworn enemies if they're to be seen as men at all, and yet they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. As they find themselves falling in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo works especially hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his elder brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold.

But the threat of discovery is constant and the punishment unspeakable. When Mungo's mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland with two strange men whose drunken banter belies murky pasts, he will need to summon all his inner strength and courage to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future.

Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in literary fiction, Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.

Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 2928377071639
Number of pages: 400

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Source: Waterstones