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Original poster

Shuggie Bain anyone?

41 replies

Mydogisagentleman · 05/06/2021 12:26

Finished reading it last night and am just about to start re reading it.
I thought it was a perfect book, thought provoking, cruel, kind and I just can’t praise it enough.

OP posts:
Deadringer · 05/06/2021 12:29

It took me a while to get into it but i really enjoyed it. As a character Shuggie didn't do much for me but i loved Agnes, poor, tragic Agnes.

sociallydistained · 05/06/2021 12:31

I adored this book.

Nickinoo30 · 05/06/2021 12:34

This book stayed with me for a very long time. It was very well written

Original poster
Mydogisagentleman · 06/06/2021 15:36

Agreed @Deadringer, I felt so sorry for Agnes, she was a victim and I was very cross with Eugene for encouraging her to drink

OP posts:
ComeDoonTheStairs · 06/06/2021 20:55

I read it awhile back and got about halfway through (give or take). The quality of the writing was great, but I just really didn't find most of the characters likeable. I found it hard to have sympathy for Agnes. It seems like she had a fairly decent childhood with Wullie and Lizzie (of course there could be more backstory towards the later part of the book) and it seems like her marriage to the first man (Brendan?) was fine. I found myself having the most sympathy for Shuggie, Wullie and Lizzie, because his grandparents seemed to provide him with more stability.

Skatingpark97 · 12/07/2021 01:23

I've just finished this book and loved it. As the author says it's a love letter from a son to his mother. Really recommend it.

Weebleweeble · 12/07/2021 06:19

I didn't finish it - their lives were too awful - this was the story of Shuggie's childhood. A love letter? - showing how low she fell. Might be that I'm Scottish and it's set in ?was it the quite recent-to-me 80s. Depressing.

Skatingpark97 · 12/07/2021 08:54

@Weebleweeble , the son never gives up on his mother. It's based on Douglas Stuart's own relationship with his mother who was an alcoholic. I also kept being shocked by remembering it was set in the 1980's. Douglas Stuart is writing the screenplay at the moment to turn it into an 8 part tv series.

Gobolino80 · 12/07/2021 09:56

I thought it was absolutely fantastic and found myself thinking about the characters for days after I'd finished reading it. The quality of the writing is phenomenal. I found myself exclaiming 'no, don't do it!' out loud at one part, I don't think a book has ever made me do that before.

TiddyAndFletch · 12/07/2021 10:01

I really couldn't get into it, for some reason. I started drifting off when the author introduced a girl as being thin and constantly told she wasn't curvy enough - such a tired old men-writing-women trope.

3kidsareenough · 12/07/2021 18:49

I loved it. One that stayed with me for days after, thinking about Shuggie & Agnes. It had the tears tripping down my face in places and then so funny in other parts.

Definitely one I will reread at some point again.

AvonCallingBarksdale · 14/07/2021 21:49

I really liked it. I was happy that Shuggie’s siblings got to restart their lives but felt so sad for Shuggie.
Hated Eugene for getting Agnes to start drinking again.
Stayed with me for a long time.

strangestranger · 15/07/2021 03:02

Spectacular portrait of love, devotion and addiction.

Roadtrip2018 · 15/07/2021 03:29

I'm related to the family and its great reading your take on the book. I thought it was a great read, hard hitting at times also a few laughs in there too.

Smashedavacado · 18/07/2021 23:23

I finished it this evening & went straight back to Chapter 1 to reread the early parts that were initially hard going. This was our first book group choice after a long break & I was determined to persevere with it despite my initial reservations. I found the dialogue language initially quite difficult to understand and of course just such huge sadness. Such a tragic depiction of the impact of alcohol on a family and the way Agnes was treated by her friends & the men in her life was just terrible.

shalom1 · 18/07/2021 23:27

Awesome book.... I actually started reading it before it was announced the winner for Man Booker. Loved it

Joolsin · 15/08/2021 23:56

I didn't love it - like a previous poster said, I didn't warm to any of the characters. It was all a bit Angela's Ashes/misery lit for me.

doesthisonework · 26/02/2022 16:40

I have just finished it and have ordered several lighter books to try and balance it out. I thought it was well written and very evocative but my god it was miserable.

BaconAndAvocado · 26/02/2022 20:45

Spectacular portrait of love, devotion and addiction
Completely agree.

Baggiepussy · 26/02/2022 20:48

@Joolsin

I didn't love it - like a previous poster said, I didn't warm to any of the characters. It was all a bit Angela's Ashes/misery lit for me.
Same, surely everyone wasn’t that horrible that lived round them.
YNK · 26/02/2022 20:54

Scenes from the book will stay with me a long time, both joyful and terrible.
It's right up there in my top 10.

FormerlySpeckledyHen · 26/02/2022 20:58

A gruelling compulsive read. I rarely read anything twice but will make an exception for it.

wejammin · 26/02/2022 21:01

I really loved it in parts, and I thought some of the writing was exceptional. I found my ability to 'hear' the Glasgow accent in my head was lacking and this really annoyed me - not the writer's fault but I think it was a distraction for me. I would love it as a TV drama or radio play just for that bit. I also struggled a bit with the description of the locations - I couldn't picture Pithead at all, and I'm usually quite good at mapping it all out in my head.
When he found Agnes under the coats at the party. That with the juxtaposition of her 1 year sober party really got me.

KohlaParasaurus · 26/02/2022 21:02

I was hooked at the start. I KNEW so many of those women, Shuggie's workmates and the ones playing cards in Lizzie's living room. My overwhelming feeling was guilt at the dismissive attitude I'd had to the unwashed, underachieving children I knew when I was at school, any of whom could have been living Shuggie's life.

It felt like an endless sequence of, "They're going to make it! Yes! Yesssss! Aw, no, not again!"

MrsPnut · 26/02/2022 21:32

I loved this book, I read it in one day whilst having chemo at the beginning of last year.