Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Shuggie Bain is a novel that embodies every superlative that one could imagine. It is the most heart-wrenching, well written, and exemplary of the most well developed characters. I would defy anyone not to become emotionally involved with the titular character. 

Set in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1980s, the novel is a strong and emotional depiction a dysfunctional family, not necessarily completely through their fault, but as also as a result of societal and economic issues. The reader first meets Shuggie as a young man working in a neighborhood market. He has recently moved into a rooming house on his own despite his young age. After a brief introduction, the novel shifts to the young Shuggie and his early family life in the Bain household. Agnes Bain, Shuggie's mother, an alcoholic, trying to raise 3 children, Catherine, Leek, and Shuggie, on her own with little help from her philandering husband, Shug, a taxi driver. It is not a pretty or calm life with fires being set, attempted suicides, and the struggles of the family trying to coexist in the same small dwelling with Agnes' parents.

From the time he is a little boy, Shuggie has struggled with the idea that he is somehow "not right." He plays with dolls, but they are really beer cans with suggestive pictures of women on them. His father thinks he is enjoying their provocativeness, but Agnes knows different. The family moves out Shug setting them up into council housing and then letting the shoe drop that he is not joining them. From there it is a spiral downward and the reader tries to catch a breath or two as Shuggie grows up, ever devoted to his mother as he watches her try to get on the right track, but always falling short. Catherine moves out and it is Leek who tries to keep Shuggie safe. 

Beneath all the emotional pulls of the story is a strong political and religious undertone. It is a condemnation of Thatcherism and the closing of the mines in Glasgow which leaves a great portion of the citizens without work and trying to escape poverty. They know how to circumvent the television and electric meters in which they need to deposit a fee to have a show to watch and heat in their homes. There is also the Catholic vs. Protestantism animosities that plays out in Agnes' family. In the eyes of her parents she should have stayed married to the Catholic (who fathered Catherine and Leek) instead of Shug who was Protestant. 

It was a compelling lecture that Douglas Stuart delivered to the audience of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures subscribers. He disavowed the autobiographical connection to the life that Shuggie Bain lived, but there were some very profound similarities. He was absolutely one of the best lecturers we have heard. Shuggie Bain is not an easy book to read, but a must one for an understanding of the human condition and the struggles of so many.  As Stuart said in his lecture, there is hope for Shuggie and for our society.

 

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

Our January selection for the Gables Book Club provided one of the best reads in the last few years. It was an Oprah Book Club read as well as appearing on President Obama's Summer List. Set in Old Ox, Georgia at the end of the Civil War, the novel seems timeless in its discourse on racial, social, and familial relationships. It is a remarkable piece of writing from a young (30 years) writer, who seems to have a firm grasp of what is involved in all those relationships.

The novel opens as George Walker learns that his son, Caleb, was killed during the Civil War. He struggles with that fact as well as how he can possibly tell his wife, Isabelle the news. Walker is a landowner with some degree of wealth, who has decided to use his land to grow peanuts. While surveying the land he meets two black men who have recently been freed from slavery of a neighbor, Ted Morton. Prentiss speaks for his brother, Landry, who is mute and show evidence of a broken jaw. Walker offers them a job working for him and the three become connected as they clear land and ready the acreage for peanut planting. 

In a surprise for all, Caleb appears, belying the report of his death. He recounts his travels back home from the war and relates that August Webler has also returned. Caleb also alludes to the relationship that he and August had before the war. This relationship continues and provokes an insidious act of violence when their sexual tryst is observed and further the abrupt escape of Prentiss and Caleb from the town. 

Nathan Harris' character development in this novel is remarkable in that they reflect the societal history of the time and place. George and Isabelle are a hard-working couple whose values transcend the typical southern aristocratic snobbery and prejudice, not only against the Negroes, but also the white people in the town. Neighbors Morton, Webler, and Sheriff Hackstedde are those prejudicial men who cannot accept that the slaves have been freed and are able to decide for themselves how to live their lives out of slavery. Prentiss and Landry want to further their station in life and to get to that time when they are self-sufficient and can maybe at some time be reunited with their mother. Caleb struggles with his sexuality, but acts morally when that relationship is put to the test. Two minor characters, Mildred, Isabelle's friend, and Clementine, a prostitute, provide a mirror into the main characters via their interactions with them.

There is so much to absorb and reflect upon in this novel. At times it is haunting, but at those same times so disturbing to think that many of the actions and reactions in that time period are not much different than what we are experiencing in 2022, over 150 years later. Definitely a must read and even re-read.