Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

 If you want a  book to lighten the heart and make the soul skip, this is not it. It tells the story of Shuggie, starting in his present in a grim bedsit, juggling just enough school to keep the authorities off his back and working in supermarket to make sufficient money to get by, just about. We are then taken back through his early life with an alcoholic mother, an abusive, violent, and largely absent step-father, with siblings, like himself, just struggling to make their way in the Glaswegian wastelands in which they find themselves. We are given Shuggie's back-story and finally get to know how he ended up where we started at the beginning of the book.

The Observer describes it as 'a novel of rare and lasting beauty' but I would disagree. It is beautifully written but that is a different thing. The characters are painfully, realistically depicted. We feel for the boy, bullied and isolated by his perceived difference, and his mother, who slowly dissolves as the book progresses. We feel their love, wishing and hoping that they will find some kind of peace and happiness, but it doesn't happen. There is courage, endurance and strength, but ultimately little hope. It is like 'A Kestrel for a Knave' but without the kestrel. Its misery is almost relentless.

It is however, a compelling read, a darkly disturbing tribute to the unquenchable nature of the human spirit. We are submerged, by the quality of the writing, in the world of Glaswegian slums and working class poverty, coming up at the end, gasping for air. As a debut novel, it is extraordinary in its quality and it is definitely worth a read but steel yourself...

Verdict: Read