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A review by brusboks
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Social realism, but make it 2020s moral. Family Is a burden, but friends can save you.
It is a nice change, but it still lingers on the details, all the grusome details. It is not enough to be poor. One is also raped, alcoholic, treated as scum, bad at mothering, and on and on.
It is very easy to compare this book with Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. While set in a different time, it is still a story of a family, and the fact that whatever happens to them is negative. Or if it is positive, it will come to an end. While McCourt's novel succeeds in ending the novel with an open-ish end (since it is based on the life of the author, we as reader's can also use that information to piece together that life is not naturalistic, even if it can feel and be that way for a loooong long time.), Shuggie Bain's ending feels a bit odd, and while it is meant to be open it also leaves you with a weird impression. An impression of "why did i need all these gory details about the life of some ill-off-in-every-way people", only for it not to mean anything in the end.
It feels like I have been a voyeur, now left with all the images, but not really needing them. All this for nothing? It makes you wonder if a good grasp of literary language can justify more-than-human portraits of working class family at the lowest end of the working class. It almost feels like humanity is taken away from the characters, and that humanity is only gained if you can escape.
However, as a depiction of how hard it can be to be gay on a part of society where macho culture is so strong and also the only thing allowed, the good use of written language is fulfilled.
It is a nice change, but it still lingers on the details, all the grusome details. It is not enough to be poor. One is also raped, alcoholic, treated as scum, bad at mothering, and on and on.
It is very easy to compare this book with Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. While set in a different time, it is still a story of a family, and the fact that whatever happens to them is negative. Or if it is positive, it will come to an end. While McCourt's novel succeeds in ending the novel with an open-ish end (since it is based on the life of the author, we as reader's can also use that information to piece together that life is not naturalistic, even if it can feel and be that way for a loooong long time.), Shuggie Bain's ending feels a bit odd, and while it is meant to be open it also leaves you with a weird impression. An impression of "why did i need all these gory details about the life of some ill-off-in-every-way people", only for it not to mean anything in the end.
It feels like I have been a voyeur, now left with all the images, but not really needing them. All this for nothing? It makes you wonder if a good grasp of literary language can justify more-than-human portraits of working class family at the lowest end of the working class. It almost feels like humanity is taken away from the characters, and that humanity is only gained if you can escape.
However, as a depiction of how hard it can be to be gay on a part of society where macho culture is so strong and also the only thing allowed, the good use of written language is fulfilled.