(4/15/2023)
This is one of those books that just crawled into my heart and curled up. Fierce and unflinching, but also mournfully sorrowful, this 2020 Booker Prize-winning novel by Douglas Stuart is emotionally devastating and so brutal in parts that I felt almost bruised by reading it.
Just know this before you read it.
This is the story of beautiful and glamorous Agnes Bain—daughter, wife, mother, lover, friend, and most of all alcoholic. It is set in the slums of Glasgow, Scotland and an almost-deserted mining town on its peripheries during the 1980s when the coal mines closed, resulting in huge levels of unemployment. Agnes is married to Hugh "Shug" Bain, a taxi driver, and they live with her parents in a cramped Glasgow public housing apartment along with Catherine and Leek, Agnes's teenage children from her first marriage, and 5-year-old Shuggie, who gradually realizes as he gets a little older that he is not like other boys. Agnes is a drunk, and as the years go by, her drinking destroys not only herself, but also everyone around her.
This novel is a literary descent into the hell of addiction.
I think the most impressive part of the book is really very simple: The title. This may be Agnes's story, but because of the title, I kept thinking it was Shuggie's story first and foremost. I saw everything that happened to Agnes through Shuggie's tender, trusting, and loving eyes and heart and soul. And that's absolutely wrenching. Because this little boy tries so hard, as do most children of alcoholics, to hold life together for his mother. He is brave and resourceful, but he is just a child. And so he is doomed to failure. If the title alone is not enough, take a good look at the cover art. I realize this photograph is not the work of author Douglas Stuart, but this one image captures all of Shuggie's angst and anguish. It's brilliant.
Yes, this is a dark, depressing, and disheartening novel, but I'm so glad I read it. It is modern literature at its finest.
But here is something fun: The dialogue feels almost visceral because it is peppered with dozens of Scottish idioms, such as dout (a cigarette end), stour (dust), tick, (IOU), and dreich (gloomy). For what it's worth, it's pretty easy to figure out what these words mean from the context, but there is always Google if you get stuck. I did get totally stuck on "messages." It means groceries or shopping and sometimes errands, so context is critical.