stephen_coulon 's review for:

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

4.0

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It tells the story of a sensitive young boy growing up with his fate-doomed alcoholic mother in the 1980s slums of Glasgow. Stewart’s skill at characterization allows this largely plot free and episodic poverty-porn to rise above its potential limitations. The empathetic portrayals of the Bain family ring with convincing verisimilitude, and it’s impossible not to care deeply for these broken and struggling people. At times the ruinous tone and repetitive serialized tragedies turn toward soap opera, but again, Stewart’s sensitive characterizations rescue the novel from its maudlin tendencies. The one black mark in this book is its lack of developing its own ostensibly rich setting. The 1980s ghettos of Glasgow are such a specific time and place that begs for developed detail and context, but the author fails to do anything with it. If it weren't for a few rare details this story could easily be taking place in the 1960s or 1930s, and I often found myself imagining the action there. Nevertheless, this is an unforgettable story of familial love broken by the degradations of poverty and addiction, and the titular character is one of the best child characters I’ve encountered in literature.