Shuggie Bain - has anyone else read it?

Hello op, I haven’t read the book, but I had to stop and comment on your username. It made me smile - is it a reference to the lady in the knitted hat from Take the Highroad?

I haven’t read it, but I think Urmstongran (a big reader) mentioned it

I was thinking of getting it but was put off by some reviews I read that mentioned it wasn’t like the Scotland they knew etc etc. Would appreciate your views.

I read it during lockdown. I thought about giving it up once or twice. For a first novel it’s truly amazing and deserved its Booker Prize, but when I’d finished it I felt scoured by the sheer bleakness of it.

I’m halfway through it. It’s bleak and although it isn’t a life I recognise it’s the life lived by many people.

I think it is well written and although I can’t say it’s enjoyable I’ll finish it as it takes me out of my comfort zone and is thought provoking.

I read it some months ago as was keen to do so. I agree it was worth the prize but not the Glasgow I remember. Of course, it was set in the 80s and my memories are of the 60s. I neve lived in a Glasgow housing scheme either. I am glad I read it but definitely not a "feel good" read although I knew that before I started. I think there is room left for a sequel. I also think it is semi -autobiographical.

I listened to the audio book version read by Angus King and enjoyed the story despite it's bleakness. Guardian and Observer reviews here:

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/31/shuggie-bain-by-douglas-stuart-review-a-rare-and-gritty-debut

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/09/shuggie-bain-by-douglas-stuart-review-lithe-revelatory-debut

From the second:

This is a deeply political novel, one about the impact of Thatcherism on Glaswegian society, which became a place of “men rotting into the settee for want of decent work”. It is brilliant on the shame of poverty and the small, necessary dignities that keep people going. It is heartbreakingly good on childhood and Shuggie’s growing sense of his otherness, of not being the same as the other boys on the estate. As he grows, and Agnes sinks, there’s a sense of inevitability to the story, but this does not make it predictable; rather the reader is gripped, hoping desperately that the boy and his mother free themselves from the twin traps of poverty and alcoholism.

It’s a really grim and gritty novel about a family living in the poorest part of Glasgow in the 1980s. I found it disturbing in parts and certainly thought provoking, but brilliant and memorable. I found it one of those books that stays with you after you’ve finished it. I think the author must have drawn on personal experience to write it. If you’re offended by very strong language and explicit sexual content this is not the book for you, but I was gripped by it.

Silverbridge. I listened to the audio version too and I thought the narrator was really excellent. Between him and the author every scene was brought to life for me.

I read it and really enjoyed it. It was a very sad book though, a bleak landscape set in a recession era Glasgow; but a story of the devotion of a young boy for his alcoholic mother.

FannyCornforth. Re. My username - it’s nothing to do with Take The High Road, which I’ve never seen, just a play on my name

I listened to the audiobook book and thought the narrator was brilliant. A tough listen I must say but strangely uplifting.

I loved the book, it was a very hard read but I think it was well worth the Booker prize. Douglas Stuart was at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last week speaking about his writing, and it is certainly partly autobiographical. His alcoholic mother died when he was 16. He even mentioned his My Little Ponies.

He has a new book coming out soon which he read from. I'll be watching out for it coming out.

Missismac

*Silverbridge*. I listened to the audio version too and I thought the narrator was really excellent. Between him and the author every scene was brought to life for me.

Definitely one of those books that is brilliantly written anyway but enhanced by listening.

If you liked that, you might enjoy listening to Milkman by Anna Burns set in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. Quite difficult on the page where it's a continuous stream of consciousness but another story that comes to life in the telling.

Silverbridge

Missismac

Silverbridge. I listened to the audio version too and I thought the narrator was really excellent. Between him and the author every scene was brought to life for me.

Definitely one of those books that is brilliantly written anyway but enhanced by listening.

If you liked that, you might enjoy listening to Milkman by Anna Burns set in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. Quite difficult on the page where it's a continuous stream of consciousness but another story that comes to life in the telling.

Silverbridge. I read Milkman a couple of years ago and I thought it was another thought provoking book, but I found the style quite difficult to read. I’m sure you’re right that the audio version would have been better.

Alegrias1

I loved the book, it was a very hard read but I think it was well worth the Booker prize. Douglas Stuart was at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last week speaking about his writing, and it is certainly partly autobiographical. His alcoholic mother died when he was 16. He even mentioned his My Little Ponies.

He has a new book coming out soon which he read from. I'll be watching out for it coming out.

Thanks for the heads up about Douglas Stuart’s new book. I’ll certainly look out for that.

Missismac

*FannyCornforth*. Re. My username - it’s nothing to do with Take The High Road, which I’ve never seen, just a play on my name

Here she is! She was played by ‘show business legend’ Gwyneth Guthrie

This is on my book club list for the end of this month. Not sure I'm looking forward to it.....

I’ve just given up on this, a third of the way through. As someone else commented it’s a far cry from the Glasgow where I grew up. In one of the largest housing schemes in Glasgow, in the post war 50s and 60s, there were pockets of deprivation and some families where alcohol contributed to that. Money wasn’t always plentiful but most folk were working hard and aspiring to “get on”. It was nothing like the scenes in the book but I’ve no doubt other parts of the city were very different to my experience. Although well written I just found the book it too depressing to see it through to the end, conversely I’d like to have heard an audio version though.

I chose this for my bookclub choice earlier in the year, so had to finish it!

I found it unremittingly grim and couldn't wait to get to the end to be have done with. I don't seek 'feelgood' reads but this was just too bleak.

Read it and loved it. It's bleak, yes - but it's also very real and although I grew up in the east of Scotland rather than the west, the area I am from was also ravaged by the loss of the mining industry etc, so I could relate to a lot of that side of it. For those who have read it and enjoyed it, I can also recommend Motherwell by Deborah Orr.

Have read Motherwell. My home town was Hamilton . Motherwell only a couple of miles away. I enjoyed the book.

Read it when it first came out, bleak, grim but emotionally beautifully written book... a heart tugger!, one of my favourite books.

So bleak and sad but a very compelling story about living with an alcoholic parent and how the children are constantly let down by a mother who is so addicted to alcohol that it is always the most important thing in her life. Probably the truest picture of addiction that I have read but not an easy read at times. Highly recommend.