Douglas Stuart’s first novel Shuggie Bain is a testament to motherhood and how it persists through the darkest of times. Stuart places the audience in 80s Glasgow where Thatcher’s policies have ravaged low income communities. The book explores the relationship between Agnes and Shuggie and their struggle with conformity. Shuggie, a young boy who struggles with his gender expression, is constantly bullied for his otherness and he exhausts himself with his devotion to his mother. Agnes struggles with alcoholism and she clings to Shuggie as he is the only one who has not left her yet. Through 430 pages, we are privy to the co-dependency of Agnes and Shuggie’s relationship, the destructive effects Agnes’ drinking has had on her kids, and the extenuating circumstances that push people to escape. Overall, Shuggie Bain is a heartbreaking story that can attest to the strength of maternal love and knowing when to let go.

Going into this book, I had very high expectations since I knew it was the winner of the 2020 Booker Prize. Pleasantly, it met and even exceeded them. There are so many layers to Shuggie Bain that even now I still feel like I am peeling back nuance and context. The book successfully weaves together many themes like motherhood, addiction, and politics which I feel were all handled expertly and with care. Though the addiction theme seems to be the most prominent, you can see how overall Stuart never faults Agnes for her disease. This book does what many others do not: forgive. A lot of books would prefer to fault Agnes for her problems and resent her for how it ultimately affects her children (which it almost always does), but Stuart (and Shuggie in turn) digs his heels in and creates an environment for Agnes to be empathized with, not criticized which I think is really beautiful. Stuart also offers subtle critiques to the politics of that time throughout the book which had a massive hand in creating situations like Agnes’. Dialogue about how there are no jobs at home and nearly everyone drinks to cope are interspersed through the book offering a subtle reminder that the people we meet in this book are merely a product of their environment. Almost every character we interact with says that they lost their job which led to spending their free time drinking which ultimately became an addiction. Therefore, the narrative makes sure that Agnes is not a villain in this story, she is an unfortunate product of her environment. 

Like I mentioned above, there are a lot of themes in this book that can be expanded upon, but I think the most prominent and the one that affected me the most was the maternal love that Shuggie had for his mom and that Agnes had for Shuggie. Even though Agnes has two other kids, she does not give them the same attention she gives Shuggie and I believe that can be attributed to how unconditional Shuggie’s love is for his mother. When he is a child, we see Shuggie go out of his way to make sure his mother is okay. He takes on such a large role as a child to be his mother’s protector and he does it proudly. In turn, Agnes dotes on her boy like when she recognizes he is being bullied she gives him sage advice to not pay the bullies any mind. Since they are constantly outcasted from society, they find solace within each other. This relationship, though, ultimately ends up harming Shuggie as he is forced to watch his mother get sick and see people take advantage of her. The young boy is even subjected to her fits of rage and suicidal ideations, but still he stays. He becomes so entangled in the wellness of Agnes he begins to equate his self-worth to her sobriety, so everytime she falls off the wagon he believes he has failed. It takes him a while, but he finally realizes (with help from his brother) that he is the only one who can help himself out of this cycle with Agnes-So, he finally breaks free.  There are so many good things I can say about Shuggie Bain, but to summarize my thoughts I will say that through the heartbreak and gloom and misery, there is a gorgeous story about unconditional love beneath the surface which I believe is what really makes this book special.