Shuggie Bain anyone?

[Mydogisagentleman]

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.

It was so well written. It feels more like I watched a screenplay rather than read the book. It is such a sad story. Alcoholism ruins and wastes so many lives.

I read it at the start of the year and loved it although it took me a while to get into. I can still remember the scene involving a fur coat which was the turning point. He’s just published his next novel Young Mungo which does sound similar - I hope he’s going to be able to break away from this subject because I did think he was a brilliant writer.

I gave my copy to my mum thinking she'd enjoy it too, for she'd worked with some tough Glasgow women when she was younger and a lot of the themes would be familiar. "I think he's made a lot of that up, it's too far fetched," was her verdict. Bless her, she thought it was straight autobiography.

I'm looking forward to Young Mungo, but I got caught in the same trap as my mum when I was reading the interviews with the author and he mentioned his brother's death at an early age. "NO! Don't tell me that Leek died!" was my first reaction, before thinking of the real young life that was lost.

I put this book in my top ten. Loved every joyous, funny, desperate, miserable minute of it.

Very mixed for me. I got strong 'gay man writing women' vibes. I thought his portraits of them were anthropological and misogynistic. I don't know anyone else who hasn't loved it though

I hated it. Unrelentingly miserable

I listened to it on audible and fine narrator was great

I completely agree with you. The women were mostly written as grotesques and punch bags for the men. They had little in the way of a spark to animate them as characters, just unremitting drudgery and oppression. The way he described some of them dripped with disgust and I found it almost obsessive about their appearance in a way that he avoided when describing the men.
I foolishly gave Young Mungo a chance and that is even worse. I abandoned that one half way through.

I found it tedious and repetitive. Only so many times you can read about Agnes getting up, 'boaking', combing the house for dregs in cans, remembering that she spent her weekly money on booze etc. I get that it is meant to be cyclical but it also suffers from the same unrealistic unrelenting misery of A Little Life, where literally every man that Agnes or Shuggie come across are abusive and not one character has a single redeeming feature. I also struggled to connect with or care about Shuggie when he's such a sidelined character in his own book and gets no real development. Leek on the other hand was a GREAT character, as was Agnes, frustrating as she obviously is.

The cynic in me thinks another Scot eulogising Scotland ( as he does Glasgow in interviews, admittedly it’s not a pretty picture he paints in the book) and living abroad. Patron Saint: Sean Connery. About the book: I felt the quality of the writing was high, but the relentless degradation of Agnes Bain was hard to bear. I’m not saying it isn’t grounded in truth, the same mix of concern, love, frustration and then aggression is described in Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey. I don’t think I’ll be hurrying to watch the TV adaptation.

Completely agree.

I've just finished this book today.

I gave up on it, it took too long for anything to really happen

I really loved this book

I loved this book. I lived in Glasgow for 7 years (from Yorkshire originally). I taught in an extremely deprived part of Glasgow and this book brought back many memories of the children I taught, even though my frame of reference is much more recent. I was so sad when I finished the book and missed the narrative or shuggie in my life (I know this sounds dramatic but only way to describe it!) It's a powerful portrayl, so well written amd incredibly haunting.

That’s how I feel. It’s very well written, but lacks a storyline. Only a third of the way through it. It’s our bookclub choice, and if I don’t finish it by then, I probably won’t bother. I’m not that invested in the characters to want to find out what happened next (and why isn’t called Agnes As it’s more about her).

I loved it. I’m from a not too dissimilar background and this is just how it is in many places. The tedium, the repetitiveness, the living pay cheque to pay cheque or benefit to benefit. The book doesn’t need a strong storyline, it’s all about the characters. I thought the writing was brilliant