Shuggie Bain (5*)

 

I've had more than my fill of alcoholism stories which mostly get told as tales of redemption, the climbs back from rock bottom.  Heard one, heard 'em all I thought, especially after having been employed by an addiction recovery organization for more than a decade.  But Douglas Stuart has written something way more disturbing:  over the course of his long novel, readers sink into the bleak, day-to-day world of disappointments and endless caretaking that destroy the childhoods of Shuggie, a Scottish mama's boy, and his older siblings.  Still, you can't quite hate Agnes because Snuggie loves her so much despite her drinking.  

And who can blame her, really? Stuart renders an equally hopeless environment, almost anthropological in its specificity.  Vivid description and ambient detail--the sound a high heel makes on a floor after the rubber tip has worn down, the rip in the seam of pantyhose after a woman has been raped--as well as frequent use of Glaswegian dialect and slang,  draw you in so deeply that you feel at home in a neighborhood where modest government assistance has replaced the decent if dangerous wages once earned from coal mining.  The underemployed men and their wives smoke, drink and gamble because life during the twilight of the Industrial Age offers so few other pleasures.  Both heat and television require putting coins in a meter that doubles as a piggy bank.  It's a wonder anyone survives, let alone a mincing child entranced by sparkly toy ponies.  

Shuggie recognizes he's different after an older boy abuses him. "Why me?" he wonders.  He unsuccessfully employs strategies (practicing his walk, memorizing football stats) to shield himself from the bullies who threaten him outside his dysfunctional home.  Aside from a year when Agnes tempts her children with the mirage of sobriety, his misery continues unabated.  Even after the death of his mother, Shuggie can't quite quit her.

I read this book with profound sadness and a retrospective sense of relief for my sheltered childhood.  Every gay man struggles with his sexuality but that is the least of Shuggie's problems.  Tipping his hand in the acknowledgments, Stuart alludes to a family dynamic similar to the one he has described for more than 400 pages.  That he managed to escape it is the only solace his unforgettable book offers.