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.