Shuggie Bain by Douglas StuartMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m a demanding book critic (something I’ll doubtless regret when it comes time for others to judge my debut novel – gulp!). Even Booker Prize winners aren’t always to my taste. Douglas Stuart’s novel, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker in 2020 and on this one I fully agree with them. It is one of the most moving novels I’ve ever read.
Young Shuggie is a gentle, somewhat effeminate son of an alcoholic mother and a cheating, mostly absent, father in the economic devastation of a former coal mining town in 1980s Glasgow. The story is told from Shuggie’s perspective, as he struggles to understand himself and the world around him. His mother is a proud, once beautiful woman. She is determined to always have her hair done, makeup on, and only go out in public if she’s wearing her best clothes and her pearly white false teeth. She sees herself as being better than her neighbours, which doesn’t serve her (or her son) well. It’s a façade that gets harder and harder to maintain as she slips deeper into drink to escape reality. Young Shuggie, still a child, becomes his mother’s defender and caregiver. As I watched him being dragged down, I longed to reach into the book and put my arms around him: that boy really needs a hug. No child should have to live that way, but we know that so many do.
There were many ups and downs; even a long period when it looked like the mother was overcoming her alcoholism. Her love for her son was never really in doubt, but she wasn’t up to the task of being a mother. The question is, will Shuggie be up to the task of being an adult, once he’s no longer weighed down by caregiving? The book could have a sequel, but I almost hope it doesn’t, because then I can believe his life turned out okay, despite the odds. The novel’s ending is believable and satisfying, but doesn’t give a firm answer to what his future will hold.
Shuggie Bain reminded me of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead , another book I happily rated 5 stars and that profoundly influenced how I think about drug addiction.
I listened to the audiobook version of Shuggie Bain, which is brilliantly narrated by Scottish actor, Angus King. I expect I’ll buy the written book too because there are so many wonderful uses of the language that I desperately want to highlight. If my future book reviewers hold me to the standard of Douglas Stuart’s novel, I’m doomed! Thankfully, I don’t need a Tema Frank 5-star rating for people to enjoy what I write. Whew!
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