A review by buttercupita
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

4.0

This story of a young boy growing up with an alcoholic mother in 1980's Scotland is harrowing, but you can't stop reading it because the telling is so vivid and beautiful. Knowing it was the fictionalized story of the author's own childhood kept me going (I needed to believe he would make it out the other side...). It fulfilled one of the purposes of reading for me: immersing myself in an entirely different life in a way that feels real. It is not a life I would wish for, but it does have a lot to teach about being part of a family and being human in general.