Day 1,360, Quasi-Quarantine: "Shuggie Bain" Depicts A Slow Descent In A Relentlessly Sordid Scotland

 

"Leeanne turned and regarded him over the curve of her shoulder. In the bright headlights he saw how pretty her eyes really were, not only brown but gold and green and a sad flat grey. He knew now that he couldn't keep his promise. He had lied to Agnes as she had lied to him about stopping the drink. She would never be able to get sober, and he, sat in the cold with a lovely girl, knew he would never feel quite like a normal boy."

A savage depiction of the perils of working-class Glasgow in the 1980s, "Shuggie Bain" is atmospheric and gritty, run through with default abuse and incessant, casual cruelty. Douglas Stuart fans sparks of love and hope in the form of Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a child who tries to prop up his alcoholic and deluded mother, Agnes.

"At least the Pit had been a known element. It had held them stuck like flies on paper, bounding them in on four sides by nothing. She could harm herself here, but he could not lose her."

"She would not go back to a life she knew the edges of."

The book wastes no time in immersing the reader into this underworld, with the first two sections covering child exploitation and domestic battery. At another disturbing point, a 39-year-old mother of three gets spanked by her father.

Sharing some parallels with the stunning "Juno Loves Legs," the novel is at turns humorous, soul-sucking, heart-breaking, and wistful, shining a dim light on the slow slide toward an inevitable end as the vortex of poverty, abuse, sexuality, and addiction incessantly collide. 

"They had granite faces, cold and hard, from watching the endless soap opera of mindless violence."

Stuart has clearly invested much of himself in the tale, which earned him the 2020 Booker Prize. His work's bleak beauty and the exigent specter of Scotland make "Shuggie Bain" a truly memorable read, defined by two characters -- Agnes & Shuggie -- whose imprint won't easily be erased ... or forgotten.

"He liked to roam alone in the darkness, getting a good look at the underbelly. Out came the characters shellacked by the grey city, years of drink and rain and hope holding them in place. His living was made by moving people, but his favourite pastime was watching them."