Shuggie Bain

[snotface]

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.