Summary and reviews of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

About this book

Summary
Reading Guide

Book Summary

Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings.

Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good―her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamorous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion's share of each week's benefits―all the family has to live on―on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her―even her beloved Shuggie.

A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of Édouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

Much of Shuggie Bain is set in Pithead, a run-down public housing scheme in 1980s Glasgow. When Agnes Bain finds that her husband, Shug, is moving the family from her parents' flat in Sighthill, she thinks life will be better in the mining town, but instead she finds that Pithead is just a collection of miners' houses on the edge of town with no longstanding social, economic, or cultural fabric to hold it together. How does that compare to America's Rust Belt cities and Appalachian towns? How does it compare to Sighthill?
In Chapter 5, the author paints a grim picture of a girl's life in Glasgow as Catherine makes her way through a Saturday. Even considering the menacing series of events that lead Catherine running to the pallet fort ...

Media Reviews

"The language, imagery, and story of fashion designer Stuart's debut novel apotheosizes the life of the Bain family of Glasgow...The emotional truth embodied here will crack you open. You will never forget Shuggie Bain. Scene by scene, this book is a masterpiece." - Kirkus Review (starred review)

"In exquisite detail, the book describes the devastating dysfunction in Shuggie's family, centering on his mother's alcoholism and his father's infidelities, which are skillfully related from a child's viewpoint...[T]his novel offers a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Very highly recommended." - Library Journal (starred review)

"While the languid pace could have benefited from condensing, there are flashes of deep feeling that cut through the darkness. This bleak if overlong book will resonate with readers." - Publishers Weekly

"There's no way to fake the life experience that forms the bedrock of Douglas Stuart's wonderful Shuggie Bain. No way to fake the talent either. Shuggie will knock you sideways." - Richard Russo, author of Chances Are

"Every now and then a novel comes along that feels necessary and inevitable. I'll never forget Shuggie and Agnes or the incredibly detailed Glasgow they inhabit. This is the rare contemporary novel that reads like an instant classic. I'll be thinking and talking about Shuggie Bain—and teaching it—for quite some time." - Garrard Conley, New York Times bestselling author of Boy Erased

"A rare and haunting ode to 1980s Glasgow and its struggling communities, Shuggie Bain tells the story of a collapsing family that is lashed together by love alone. Douglas Stuart writes with startling, searing intimacy. I fell hard for these characters; when they have nothing left, they cling maddeningly—irresistibly—to humor, pride and hope." - Chia-Chia Lin, author of The Unpassing

This information about Shuggie Bain was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Cathryn Conroy

Dark and Depressing But It's a Masterpiece: A Literary Descent into the Hell of Addiction
This is one of those books that just crawled into my heart and curled up. Fierce and unflinching, but also mournfully sorrowful, this 2020 Booker Prize-winning novel by Douglas Stuart is emotionally devastating and so brutal in parts that I felt almost bruised by reading it.

Just know this before you read it.

This is the story of beautiful and glamorous Agnes Bain—daughter, wife, mother, lover, friend, and most of all alcoholic. It is set in the slums of Glasgow, Scotland and an almost-deserted mining town on its peripheries during the 1980s when the coal mines closed, resulting in huge levels of unemployment. Agnes is married to Hugh "Shug" Bain, a taxi driver, and they live with her parents in a cramped Glasgow public housing apartment along with Catherine and Leek, Agnes's teenage children from her first marriage, and 5-year-old Shuggie, who gradually realizes as he gets a little older that he is not like other boys. Agnes is a drunk, and as the years go by, her drinking destroys not only herself, but also everyone around her.

This novel is a literary descent into the hell of addiction.

I think the most impressive part of the book is really very simple: The title. This may be Agnes's story, but because of the title, I kept thinking it was Shuggie's story first and foremost. I saw everything that happened to Agnes through Shuggie's tender, trusting, and loving eyes and heart and soul. And that's absolutely wrenching. Because this little boy tries so hard, as do most children of alcoholics, to hold life together for his mother. He is brave and resourceful, but he is just a child. And so he is doomed to failure. If the title alone is not enough, take a good look at the cover art. I realize this photograph is not the work of author Douglas Stuart, but this one image captures all of Shuggie's angst and anguish. It's brilliant.

Yes, this is a dark, depressing, and disheartening novel, but I'm so glad I read it. It is modern literature at its finest.

But here is something fun: The dialogue feels almost visceral because it is peppered with dozens of Scottish idioms, such as dout (a cigarette end), stour (dust), tick, (IOU), and dreich (gloomy). For what it's worth, it's pretty easy to figure out what these words mean from the context, but there is always Google if you get stuck. I did get totally stuck on "messages." It means groceries or shopping and sometimes errands, so context is critical.

lani

Beware: it hurts
A finalist for the National Book Award and the Booker Prize shortlist,, this novel's depiction of Glasgow's mining town vividly portrays the landscape and the atmosphere around the 1980's. Most of the book is centered around the relationship with a young boy named Shuggie and his mother. It is a story that brilliantly captures the suffering wrapped around alcoholism, addiction, sexuality and destitution. However, I have to admit, reading this in 2020 and a week before the election, made me spiral into a downward depression where I thought I couldn't go lower. This is a book that hurts. Hurts because of the dark side of poverty, the way Shuggie is bullied because of his sexual orientation, the way Shuggie becomes an adult before his time to assist an alcoholic mother who is increasingly falling to pieces, the sexual predatory nature of these men, and a structure and neighborhood that does not support one another. I know I am portraying a grim, deeply sad book but it is also brilliantly written and made me feel as if I was caught in the middle of this cyclone. Few novels can explore these issues so astutely

Membership Advantages

Reviews
"Beyond the Book" articles
Free books to read and review (US only)
Find books by time period, setting & theme
Read-alike suggestions by book and author
Book club discussions
and much more!
Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
More about membership!

Author Information

Biography
Books by this Author

Douglas Stuart Author Biography

Photo: Martyn Pickersgill

Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. He was Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he has an MA from the Royal College of Art in London and since 2000 he has lived and worked in New York City.

Stuart's New York Times-bestselling debut novel Shuggie Bain won the 2020 Booker Prize and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It was the winner of two British Book Awards, including Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, Kirkus Prize, as well as several other literary awards. Stuart's writing has appeared in the New Yorker and Literary Hub.

Link to Douglas Stuart's Website