Book: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

It’s so brilliantly written that it draws you in when you don’t want to go there. I can see why this book got all the accolades.

I was at an online event during the early days of the pandemic to learn about this book. Weirdly, I don’t remember anything about the conversation, but clearly, it had impacted me as I remembered to buy this a while back without adding it to my wish list.

We are with Shuggie from when he is a toddler to his teens, where the prologue initially takes us. We feel the pain when he is wrenched from the comfort of his grandparents and when his dad leaves his mum. And then we watch as he witnesses her subsequent decline with every smash of a can against the wall and a crack in her heart.

Later, the kid calculates his father (Big Shug) has 14 children (mostly step) and 1 named after himself from each of the 3 unfortunate women who have succumbed to his brand of rough Glaswegian charm. Considering how busy he is, Shuggie is delighted at spending just 3 hours in his father's company over several years.

It’s hard to believe the despair of all the characters - every single one - during the 1980s. It sounds like the book is based in the 50s. 

The whole book is in the Glaswegian dialect, and there were some words I couldn't translate even as I got to the end. I feel sad to read about a city I love filled with these characters that hope never finds and love eludes.

Shuggie Bain is another book I raced through in under a week. Partly as I’d already decided enough of reading brilliantly miserable books based on true life stories that all have absent/abusive parents at the cause, I’m taking myself off to read a few books I can escape into now.

A stunning book though, even more impressive as a debut. And black cab drivers do not come out well here.

PS I hear it’s being made into an 8 part series which I hope I get to see (depending on where it’s shown).