I'm late to Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, even though the book seemed to be everywhere before and after winning the Booker Prize in 2020. Better late than never, though. Shuggie Bain is an extraordinary book.
I wouldn't call Shuggie the main character in this novel, though, as the entire story and all of the character's actions and reactions revolved around Shuggie's mother Agnes, who was beautiful, elegant, witty and an alcoholic.
The story began in Glasgow during the early 1990s with Shuggie aged 15, living alone in a boarding house and working shifts in a supermarket. The timeline then went back to the early 1980s to show how Shuggie got there.
During his early childhood Shuggie, his parents, half-sister Catherine and his half-brother 'Leek' lived with his mother's parents in their small flat. Shuggie's father Shug was a pathetic excuse of a man, a womanising taxi driver whose behaviour towards Agnes was often brutal. Soon after the story began Shug moved his family out of his in-law's flat and into their own council flat in a mining area where Agnes was a fish out of water, but instead of moving in with them at Pithead, Shug shacked up with a woman he worked with, one who wasn't as beautiful as Agnes, but who provided him with steady meals and a calm life.
Agnes' alcoholism led to an uncertain life for everyone around her. Sometimes there was food on the table, but usually there wasn't. Sometimes Agnes was full of fun and life while other times she raged, phoning up Shug or other people who had done her wrong thirty times in an hour to blast them. Quite often, Agnes was the one who was verbally abused, physically assaulted, or more than once, raped while she was drunk.
Meanwhile, Shuggie was experiencing his own trials. Due to his effeminate nature he was continually bullied, abused and assaulted because he didn't fit in at school or into the rough Pithead community.
Catherine and Leek left home as soon as they could, without telling their mother where they were going and leaving Shuggie with the full burden of trying to keep Agnes safe and sober.
The constant swearing bothered me right up until the end of the book. All of the characters swore in almost every sentence they said and while I understand that their language reflected how the characters in this time, place and socio-economic group spoke in their everyday lives, sometimes the words were brutal, like a slap in the face. I couldn't reconcile the foul words coming out of Shuggie's mouth with his age and his devotion to his mother. The writing is fabulous, regardless of my aversion to the swearing and some of the insults that came out of Agnes' mouth made me laugh out loud. The Glasgow dialect took some getting used to, though.
There was nothing glamorous about Agnes' alcoholism, she was shown at her very worst time and time again. Like Shuggie though, I was always on Agnes' side, no matter how badly she behaved. I wanted her to get better, but of course, she never did.
Shuggie Bain left me feeling as if I had been through a traumatic experience myself. It was bleak and heart-wrenching, and one of the most honest-feeling stories I've read in a long time. I expect I will think about these characters for the rest of my life.
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