Shuggie Bain - has anyone else read it?

Exactly as Greyduster said.

I'm reading it now. I nearly gave up after the first few pages but pressed on as it is for a book club. My main objection was that it is written in dialect, which I hate, but it got easier as I read on and now I am actually enjoying it. It is very grim indeed though. Poor Shuggie and Leek. What a childhood.

Think I'll give book club a swerve this month. This book isn't for me, judging on the reviews on here.

I read it last summer during the stringent lockdown here in Spain. Boy it was grim. It was well written and deserved the Booker imo. My heart was in my mouth several times. Each time Agnes makes an effort to stop drinking I was so hopeful for her to do it. It brings home how alcoholism destroys relationships. Years ago someone said to me ‘even a bad mother is a good mother to the child’.

It’s heart rending, shameful and upsetting. Some families go through the mill. Plus it demonstrated that even in poverty, a neighbourhood watches and judges. There’s a pecking order in all groups it seems.

Ive tried twice to read it. I just can't its so bleak. It breaks my heart. It sits on my coffee table to remind me how very lucky I am.

I'm reading it now, almost at the end. It's utterly heart breaking at times, you almost have to stop reading, the casual cruelness makes you despair of humanity. The level of poverty is just soul destroying and sadly there are many still living like that in our country.

I have it on my Audible but I've only listened to about a fifth of it as I really wasn't enjoying it. Bleak is an understatement! I have listened to some quite difficult stories but this was hard to like. Just my opinion.

I've read it, a deserving winner.

FannyCornforth

Missismac

FannyCornforth. Re. My username - it’s nothing to do with Take The High Road, which I’ve never seen, just a play on my name

Here she is! She was played by ‘show business legend’ Gwyneth Guthrie

I’ll have to seek it out and have a look at my namesake

foxie48

So bleak and sad but a very compelling story about living with an alcoholic parent and how the children are constantly let down by a mother who is so addicted to alcohol that it is always the most important thing in her life. Probably the truest picture of addiction that I have read but not an easy read at times. Highly recommend.

I agree with your comments entirely. A very graphic depiction of the effects of alcoholism on the wider family, particularly children.

So bleak and sad but a very compelling story about living with an alcoholic parent and how the children are constantly let down by a mother who is so addicted to alcohol that it is always the most important thing in her life. Probably the truest picture of addiction that I have read but not an easy read at times. Highly recommend.

Read it when it first came out, bleak, grim but emotionally beautifully written book... a heart tugger!, one of my favourite books.

Have read Motherwell. My home town was Hamilton . Motherwell only a couple of miles away. I enjoyed the book.

Read it and loved it. It's bleak, yes - but it's also very real and although I grew up in the east of Scotland rather than the west, the area I am from was also ravaged by the loss of the mining industry etc, so I could relate to a lot of that side of it. For those who have read it and enjoyed it, I can also recommend Motherwell by Deborah Orr.

I chose this for my bookclub choice earlier in the year, so had to finish it!

I found it unremittingly grim and couldn't wait to get to the end to be have done with. I don't seek 'feelgood' reads but this was just too bleak.

I’ve just given up on this, a third of the way through. As someone else commented it’s a far cry from the Glasgow where I grew up. In one of the largest housing schemes in Glasgow, in the post war 50s and 60s, there were pockets of deprivation and some families where alcohol contributed to that. Money wasn’t always plentiful but most folk were working hard and aspiring to “get on”. It was nothing like the scenes in the book but I’ve no doubt other parts of the city were very different to my experience. Although well written I just found the book it too depressing to see it through to the end, conversely I’d like to have heard an audio version though.

This is on my book club list for the end of this month. Not sure I'm looking forward to it.....

Missismac

*FannyCornforth*. Re. My username - it’s nothing to do with Take The High Road, which I’ve never seen, just a play on my name

Here she is! She was played by ‘show business legend’ Gwyneth Guthrie

Alegrias1

I loved the book, it was a very hard read but I think it was well worth the Booker prize. Douglas Stuart was at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last week speaking about his writing, and it is certainly partly autobiographical. His alcoholic mother died when he was 16. He even mentioned his My Little Ponies.

He has a new book coming out soon which he read from. I'll be watching out for it coming out.

Thanks for the heads up about Douglas Stuart’s new book. I’ll certainly look out for that.

Silverbridge

Missismac

Silverbridge. I listened to the audio version too and I thought the narrator was really excellent. Between him and the author every scene was brought to life for me.

Definitely one of those books that is brilliantly written anyway but enhanced by listening.

If you liked that, you might enjoy listening to Milkman by Anna Burns set in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. Quite difficult on the page where it's a continuous stream of consciousness but another story that comes to life in the telling.

Silverbridge. I read Milkman a couple of years ago and I thought it was another thought provoking book, but I found the style quite difficult to read. I’m sure you’re right that the audio version would have been better.

Missismac

*Silverbridge*. I listened to the audio version too and I thought the narrator was really excellent. Between him and the author every scene was brought to life for me.

Definitely one of those books that is brilliantly written anyway but enhanced by listening.

If you liked that, you might enjoy listening to Milkman by Anna Burns set in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. Quite difficult on the page where it's a continuous stream of consciousness but another story that comes to life in the telling.

I loved the book, it was a very hard read but I think it was well worth the Booker prize. Douglas Stuart was at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last week speaking about his writing, and it is certainly partly autobiographical. His alcoholic mother died when he was 16. He even mentioned his My Little Ponies.

He has a new book coming out soon which he read from. I'll be watching out for it coming out.

I listened to the audiobook book and thought the narrator was brilliant. A tough listen I must say but strangely uplifting.

FannyCornforth. Re. My username - it’s nothing to do with Take The High Road, which I’ve never seen, just a play on my name

I read it and really enjoyed it. It was a very sad book though, a bleak landscape set in a recession era Glasgow; but a story of the devotion of a young boy for his alcoholic mother.