Douglas Stuart (2) (1976–)

POWERFUL, from cover to end, throughout this book I could relate to aspects from it from my own childhood being raised in a home with a war damaged father who turned to drink and a mother who joined him so that she could numb the anger and despair. As a child it is like living like as a whipped puppy and like Shuggie there is the IRRATIONAL COMMITMENT to a parent who loves you for all the right and wrong reasons, but can never find a balance or strength to live normally day to day. Shugggie’s lives in a constant survival mode and on top of this he has to deal with his own sexual identity. A reader will read the mean nasty nature of humans who are in fact wolves dressed up in sheep’s clothing. As you read you, you say to yourself, surely Agnes will get better, come on girl you’ve got pride, you want to punch Eugene and those pit women and children deserve what they get. Then you reassure yourself and say thank goodness this is only a narrative, but like all narratives they have a basis from fact and there is a lot of truth in this book, physical- sexual abuse as well as experimentation by children of life that is well beyond their years. Children are being raised by addicted parents and sadly become damaged as well and once broken the cracks are always there.… (plus d'informations)

In Misery

Media: Audio
Read by Douglas King
Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins

“A terribly tragic and horrible story of the increasing degradation and poverty of a working class family. Accounts of terrible physical and mental abuse.” - BookAddict review

Yes it’s from a review on LT, though not of Shuggie Bain - it’s of Zola’s L'Assommoir though it does describe Shuggie Bain rather well.

Personally I prefer Zola’s Gervaise to Douglas Stuart’s Agnes. Though both characters descend into drunkenness and pine over undesirable men, I could feel more sympathy for the French alcoholic and I have to believe this has something to do with the writing. Of course Zola sets a high bar.

Poverty and alcoholism don’t always go hand in hand. But they often do. Shuggie Bain’s mother who was born to a poor working class family descends into poverty and alcoholism fairly rapidly once she leaves her first husband. She makes as they say, bad choices.

When we meet Agnes she’s already been married twice but reader doesn’t find out much about her first husband who is simply referred to as “The Catholic”. She has two children Katherine and Leek from the Catholic and Shuggie from her second husband, Shuggie Bain the Elder.

Agnes is unhappy and drowns her sorrows in whatever alcoholic beverage she can get. She spends her government child support money on the grog. She drinks herself into oblivion. Katherine flees the nest and Leek follows shortly after. Shuggie the elder eventually leaves. Young Shuggie, still a child is left to care for his mother. The tragedy of the book is that Shuggie feels himself responsible for his mother’s alcoholism and believes he can save her. He gets no help. The book is set in the UK under Thatcher’s iron reign, and the welfare state, starved of funds does nothing to help.

I did not gain much from this book. I have first hand experience of, and have read enough about alcoholism and poverty, and there’s nothing new for me in Agnes’s degradations. She goes from one horrific situation to a the next, repeating her past mistakes. The book describes her decline in increasingly horror-filled detail. . I suppose that’s the point, but I could see no point in its being driven home time and time again. I did learn one thing though.

After tiring of living with her parents, Agnes moves to a house that Shuggie’s dad, big Shuggie has somehow managed secure. It’s in a run-down council estate which was built for mine workers who are now laid-off. The area is thus referred to as ”The Pits”. So that’s where the saying “going to the pits”comes from.

There’s something to be learned every da.… (plus d'informations)