Shuggie Bain has been hard to avoid over the past year. It’s a debut novel, but seemed to emerge fully-formed, and wowed pretty much every reader it was put in front of. It was nominated for multiple literary prizes, and won the The Booker Prize. It’s interesting to me that Shuggie seems to have had such wide appeal – the story itself isn’t one that would normally appeal to such diverse readers. But it is the writing rather than the story, I think, that has brought this book to the top of so many reading lists. It was one of the books I was most excited to see in my round of The BookTube Prize.
Set in 1980s Glasgow, Shuggie Bain is the story not so much of the title character, but of his mother, Agnes. Agnes is an alcoholic, and this addiction defines nearly every aspect of her life. It is the nexus of her social interactions, it has soured her relationships, it has made her a mercurial and unreliable parent and has caused her to be the constant topic of vicious neighbourhood gossip. Shuggie is the youngest of her three children, and the only child she had with her latest husband, also named Shuggie Bain. His two older siblings have been damaged by their mothers’ drinking, and have been forced to largely fend for themselves for years. Both want nothing more than to escape their home lives to build neater, more consistent lives of their own.
But Shuggie is not as eager to get out. Perhaps because he is the youngest and more tied to his mother, perhaps because of his personality or his older siblings’ buffer, Shuggie is deeply devoted to his mother. He can see how much harm her drinking does, but rather than becoming frustrated and angry about it, or blaming her for her continued alcoholism, he just loves her. He tries to take care of her, he tries to cover up her shame from the neighbours, he endures the cruel teasing of the other kids and never stops loving her.
Which is both the wonderful and most tragic aspect of this book. Shuggie can’t and won’t abandon his mother, and never seems to lose hope that maybe things won’t always be this way. There is a part of the book that presents what Agnes could be without her addiction, and in this it shows us what Shuggie chooses to see when he looks at his mum. He’s not oblivious, but rather he chooses to see the parts of her he loves no matter how hard a task that may be. He is vulnerable – he’s gay in a time and place where that makes him a target for the cruelty of other kids and for adult predatory encounters – but also resilient. He has an ability to retain his sense of self despite the chaos and straight up cruelty of those around him, which is what makes him so special.
This book was incredibly hard to read. Before it came up in my BookTube Prize round I had tried and failed to get into it. That feeling of not being sure if I was really prepared for it and not sure if I had the fortitude to stick with it never actually went away. But I did make it to the end, and in doing so I experienced something at once tragic and beautiful. I’m glad I had a reason to continue with this book. It is difficult. But it also left me with an interesting combination of emotions that don’t usually go together – anger, disgust, frustration, hoplessness combined with love, loyalty, tenderness, and forgiveness. I don’t know how a boy like Shuggie managed to hold all those emotions, but somehow he did. And walking next to him through this novel left me with an emotional experience I will not soon recover from. I know that this is one of those books that will stick with me, long past when the details start to get fuzzy. Every time I look at it those emotions will come rushing back, and that is what makes this such a powerful book.
I don’t think this book will be for everyone. A friend of mine described it as “deliciously dismal,” a description that perfectly sums it up. If you’re the kind of reader who wants to dive into these deep and murky depths, you will be rewarded for your courage. But it’s also okay if you aren’t able to make it through. If it hadn’t been for the Prize, I’m not sure if I would have. I’m grateful I did, but it certainly wasn’t easy. That said, it left me feeling an odd sense of hope for myself and my kid. Things aren’t easy. I don’t suffer from addiction, but I have medical issues that will put limits on what I can do, that may mean that life will look different for us than for other families. If Shuggie can come through something as difficult as his childhood and still love his mother, despite everything, maybe there’s hope for me too. Maybe the human heart is capable of much more than many of us have ever had to challenge ours with. That revelation alone was worth the tears.
Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher’s policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city’s notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good–her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion’s share of each week’s benefits–all the family has to live on–on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes’s older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is “no right,” a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her–even her beloved Shuggie.
A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of Édouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell. – Goodreads
Book Title: Shuggie Bain
Author: Douglas Stuart
Series: No
Edition: Hardback/Audiobook
Published By: Picador
Released: February 11, 2020
Genre: Fiction, Family, Alcoholism, Poverty
Pages: 433
Date Read: April 7-May 3, 2021
Rating: 9/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.38/5 (44,881 ratings)
My BookTube Prize Ranking: 1st out of 6
[…] Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart […]
[…] Prize in the summer of 2023, though it wasn’t one I had planned to read otherwise. I read Shuggie Bain in 2021 for the same reason, and while I found it difficult going – of course – I was […]