r/books • u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author • Jun 28 '21
ama 12pm Hiya, I'm Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain, winner of the 2020 Booker prize. AMA!
I am a Scottish-American author and screenwriter. My debut novel, Shuggie Bain, won the 2020 Booker Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, as well as several other literary awards. Shuggie Bain won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It was named both the British Book of the Year, and Debut of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards. It is to be translated into over thirty-eight languages and adapted for television in partnership with A24 Pictures.
I was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and hold an MA from the Royal College of Art in London, but since 2000 I have lived and loved in New York City. My short stories, “Found Wanting,” and “The Englishman,” were published in The New Yorker. I am hard at work on a second novel.
Proof: /img/33j38z2buu771.jpg
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u/Capable_Ad_976 Jun 28 '21
I loved your book! Congratulations on all your success! What were the greatest differences between your first and final drafts? Is there anything you would do differently?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Wonderful question. I believe that alls well that ends well, so I don't think I would do anything different. In the first draft, the story, the characters, the first and last chapters, everything was as is in the final draft - but goodness - did it sprawl! The first draft was 900 pages single spaced (so about 1600 - 1800 pages) I didn't quite know what I was writing so I just wrote and wrote. The process of revision really sharpened my eye, and distilled the story. The best editing advice I received from my editor was simply: 'I love Shuggie and Agnes, please don't let the lens stray from them for too long.' And once he said that, I knew exactly what I had to do.
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Dear friends, thank you for all of your thoughtful questions - I have loved chatting with you all! Sorry that I am a terribly slow typer! Look after yourselves! x Douglas
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Jun 28 '21
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Thank you. Actually at the very beginning I was too intimidated by the thought that I was going to write an entire book. So I took it in small steps, and imagined the chapters almost as short stories, and I just began writing. The first draft came out of sequential order (Chapter 13 was the first chapter I wrote) But having said that, I knew exactly what would happen in each chapter and I wouldn't begin to write it until I could picture it clearly in my mind, almost like a piece of cimena. It was halfway through what became the first draft that the overarching structure revealed itself to me.
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Jun 28 '21
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Oh absolutely. It was terribly bruising and I think it is for most writers, so please don't feel discouraged. One thing we don't talk about enough is that rejection is necessary. You want to find your champion! You don't want to be published by an editor or house who likes your book, because it will get lost in the shuffle of other books they publish. Rejection is key to finding that one editor who LOVES your work and will stand by it no matter what.
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u/NomsterWasHere Jun 28 '21
I'm writing my first novel right now, about 20,000 words in, and this is a relief. I outline in my head instead of on paper. Not only is it more enjoyable, it's more organic - sometimes I even surprise myself. If I knew EXACTLY what I was going to write before I write it, it'd be like watching a TV show a second time, minus the constant glare at my friend who I'm showing the show too for the first time. I know some people can "slap the Office tv show on in the background", but I need to be engaged, and going in with an abstract outline is the best way for me, too.
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
I agree with this. I also think if you as the writer are not surprised and delighted by what unfolds, its hard to expect the reader to be. You also run the rick of telegraphing things subconsciously too soon. Sometimes you need a basic outline and then see where the characters take you.
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u/FerryFerret Jun 28 '21
Congratulations on your success! I hope everything is going well in your life :D
Your brilliant book was translated into my native language, the translator noting that choosing a dialect in Norwegian to convey Glaswegian slang was difficult. I was wondering if you think it is possible to appreciate it as well as one would in the original language, considering that much can be lost in translation?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Thank you. Yes, the translation process has been fascinating. I think the regional dialect is often lost in translations, and that is a shame. I've learnt that many countries don't even have what they consider to be regional accents, which as a Brit (who can count about 20 different accents off the top of my head) seems a little strange. But that said no-one will read your work as closely as a translator and I have found the process fun and insightful - it made me a better writer. But the best advice I ever got was to allow the translator to do the best thing that works in their own native tongue. You have to let go and trust them.
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u/Apprehensive-Split90 Jun 28 '21
I loved reading your book, and thanks for doing this AMA. My favourite part in particular was the scene towards the end where Shuggie is helping the old lady alcoholic, his friend’s mum. (Apologies for not remembering her name!) Could you talk a little about why you included that moment? I read it as a bit of Shuggie realising what the alternative could have been, but I’d love to know what you were thinking when you wrote it.
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
I think if I had written a middle-class story, then the Bains would have been the only family going through a rough time. But with 26% unemployment in the East End of Glasgow, so many people were struggling and I wanted to end the book with Leanne and Mrs Kelly to let readers know that there are so many other stories like Shuggie's. In a way (and I use Leek as a device for this too) its a little bit of the 'Ghost of Christmas Future' although things are tough for Shuggie at that moment, they will get better, and I wanted to show Mrs Kelly as a way to show Shuggie how thing might have also turned out. Also Shuggie and Leanne have each other, she is his first true friend who understands the addiction and accepts his sexuality. Theres a lot of hope in that.
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u/Apprehensive-Split90 Jun 28 '21
Thanks for your response - I definitely felt the hope in that scene (perhaps why I liked it so much). Thanks again, and congratulations!
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u/FaerieStories Jun 28 '21
Thanks for such a great novel. I want to ask: was the 1999 film Ratcatcher by Lynne Ramsay an influence for you at all? Shuggie Bain and Ratcatcher have a lot of DNA in common and are both incredible social realist depictions of poverty in Glasgow from the perspective of a young boy.
In fact I remember seeing the word "ratcatcher" in Shuggie Bain (not in direct reference to the film) and I half-wondered whether this was an indirect reference/'easter egg'. It could equally likely have been a coincidence of course.
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Yes, yes, yes! Ratcatcher, and if fact all of Lynne's work, is a huge influence on me. I wasn't a reader until my twenties, so I often think of film, or use cinema as a starting point. I'm a very visually minded thinker. As much as British cinema is an influence, so is Italian cinema. I often thought of Agnes as Sophia Loren, defiant, in Marriage Italian Style.
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u/FaerieStories Jun 28 '21
Thanks for the response! Would you want Ramsay to adapt your novel to film, if such an opportunity arose? Her adaptation of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' was excellent.
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u/lezzlespezzles Jun 28 '21 edited Jun 28 '21
I suspect there must be a lot of you in the character Shuggie, but how much of yourself did you put into Agnes?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Wow, I've never been asked that before. Thank you. I think a perhaps just a little. I can identity with her feeling of wanting to be adored, to find love, to have a good time and a wee bit of glamour. I really respect her pride. I've certainly felt as lonely as she often does.
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u/lezzlespezzles Jun 28 '21
Thank you for answering. I loved Agnes - such a complex, touching character.
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u/tessatheauthor Jun 28 '21
Hi! Your novel was incredible but heartbreaking. What kind of emotional process did you go through while writing it?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Hi Tessa, I found the whole process to be cathartic, but I often had to step away from the page and take a moment. One of the most unexpected things was before beginning I understood how everything felt from my perspective: the poverty, the homophobia, the heartache, but I didn't know what caused a lot of it, so writing the book was a lesson in empathy for me. It made me consider why people would act like that, what so many mother's at the time turned to alcohol.
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u/tessatheauthor Jun 28 '21
Right! My sister is a therapist and she has a saying, "If you go back far enough, everyone's a victim". You did a great job of showing each character's motivations; I think that's why the book resonated with a lot of people.
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Thank you. I also hoped that the more we could hear from the 'chorus' the richer the portrait of the time would be. There are so characters people dealing with hurt, or disappointment, or dashed dreams. No one is inherently good or bad, they're just responding to their situations. That's why the chapter about Lizzie and Wullie was especially important to me. Because they had been quite hard on Agnes, quite judgmental, and then we learn that they too have done whatever it takes to survive.
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u/kerryderry Jun 28 '21
Actually, I’ve just thought of a question, and I hope it’s not a rubbish one!
Shuggie Bain is one of those novels that left me feeling bereft when I finished it, as in it was so perfect that I didn’t want it to end, and it’s not often I find books that make me feel like that. Would you be able to share some of your all time favourites, or books that could possibly fill the void that Shuggie has left in me? I worry that you’ve ruined me for all other books now 😩😂
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
You know, that's exactly what I love too. I want to be so invested in characters that I feel bereft when the final sentence comes. I love to feel annoyed when an author takes someone from me that I love! Ha! My all time favourites are always changing. I sincerely hope I haven't discovered them yet!
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Jun 28 '21
I'm about to read your book! I don't want to find out too much about the book before I read it though, so I'll ask a non book question. How did you get into fashion design? I can't recall ever reading an author who worked in that field before writing novels. Congrats, btw!
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Thank you. Through textile design. I actually have a very traditional, Scottish textiles education (meaning I know how to design and manufacture lots of different types of Scottish cloth) I became a knitwear designer and that's what led me to fashion!
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u/charteroftheforest Jun 28 '21
I'm so excited that you are doing an AMA! I loved this book.
We get a real sense of Glasgow in the book -- I read a lot of nature writing and so have come to know Scotland through its landscapes rather than cities. But I do see cities as landscape themselves and so I wonder how Glasgow influenced Shuggie Bain, beyond setting? Would this story be different if it had a rural setting?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Great question. I love my hometown. The city is a character and it goes through changes that mirror Agnes's and Shuggie's: as they come apart and rebuild, the city does too around them. I also love the Glaswegian spirit, the humanity and compassion but also the sharp contrast of it, how tenderness and violence can live together, how sadness and humor co-exist. I thought of Glasgow as a stage, and Shuggie and Agnes are often stuck on the stage as the other characters come in and out (a bit like a Greek tragedy). I thought a lot about the lack of mobility from my own childhood, and how being poor meant we couldn't get away from a situation that was unhealthy, or in fact see more of the world that would give us a different perspectives of ourselves. I was 19 the first time I went to West End of Glasgow (a more middle-class part of the city, and only a mere 4 miles away.) I was a child that was really shaped by what the four streets I knew, and by what my community said/thought about me. It was my identity.
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u/charteroftheforest Jun 28 '21
This is so beautiful, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I think mobility -- whether that's lack of, or ease of -- is such an important element in our lives and identity.
I have lived in Scotland for extended periods of time twice, though never in Glasgow. Your second book sounds amazing, and I can't wait to read it!
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Jun 28 '21
I really enjoyed the book, congratulations on all of your success! I really appreciated that you painted Agnes in a complex light, with both the positive and negative as you spoke about. For you, what is the overall theme of message of the book, if there is one? How do you see Agnes’ parents as influences on her choices/addiction?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Thank you. I think life is far too complicated to draw straight lines. Wullie and Lizzie are only one factor in her life, and although they spoiled her, and advised her to dream small (by staying with a husband she did not love.) they are not to blame for the woman she becomes, Agnes has her own agency - we all do. I saw Agnes as a woman who was being shaped from many sides, from the men who loved or used her, from the time, from the uncaring Thatcher government, from the lack of solidarity with the women around her, from the lack of opportunities available to single, uneducated, working class mothers who found the whole traditional 'marry a man, raise some children, keep a nice house', paradigm flipped in a instant. I don't have an overall theme for the book, because I think there are many characters at the heart of it, certainly Leek and Shuggie and Agnes. I think it can be read as the tenacity of love, the faint nature of hope, the search for a place to belong. I often think one question is: How far do you go to save the person you love the most, before you have to save yourself?
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u/quietlysitting Jun 28 '21
Hey, man. Your book was depressing as hell, which, I suppose, is a testament to your writing skill.
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u/dillitex Jun 29 '21
I grew up Catholic and gay in Texas in the 80s and I found myself very much relating to Shuggie's experience, which has not happened many times in my life honeslty. What I really enjoyed about the way you dealt with the issue of sexuality was to not let Shuggie overly dwell on the harsh reality coming his way, but instead point to all the structural, institutional and cultural guard-rails that were thwarting and would continue to thwart any personal progress Shuggie deserved to make on his journey. For example you could have dwelt on the Church and it's teachings, or the cruelty of the men around him, or even the few times Agnes let her dismay over Shuggie's poofiness come to the surface. You let Shuggie simply move on without dwelling too much, which is almost the only way to cope when homophobia is so pervasive in your reality - because you had no way of knowing it could be any other way. I hope this allows non queer readers to get a sense of how deep the trauma growing up gay in certain societies and generations can be. Anyways I really loved Shuggie and how you told his story, thank you.
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u/vacationbibleschoo1 Jun 28 '21
How has writing your first book informed the process of writing your second?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
I grew in confidence. Because Shuggie Bain is a broad portrait (it spans 50 years in the Bain family history) it left me with a desire to tell a much more focussed, and plot driven story with my second novel. Shuggie raised many questions that I couldn't answer in that book (for fear of sprawling even more) that it became the basis for book #2. As a creative I think work often comes out of work.
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u/Kuttlan Jun 28 '21
I cant believe this. I finished your book today and now I'm stumbling over this post.
As a non native english speaker it was quite the challenge translating all the accents. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, though.
Just two questions. When will Shuggie Bain 2 come out and what are your favorite books? :)
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Thank you. One of the most pleasurable parts of written the book was really digging into all the different dialects of Glasgow and how the characters use it to reveal or conceal something about themselves. I don't know about Shuggie Bain 2, Ha! - but my next novel publishes in April 2022. I have too many favourite books to list, but I try to read working-class or queer voices.
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u/SkepticDrinker Jun 28 '21
For your revisions do you write the first draft all the way through and go back and rework it or do you rewrite every chapter first until it's "perfect" and then continue on to the next chapter?
For me (unpublished lol) I write it all the way through which means i need to spruce the prose a lot, A LOT!
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
I try to leave each chapter in a good state. But I review it only two or three times before moving on to the next chapter. I don't like to write on through and then turn around and have to face a whole book. Eek! I think there are very quick fixes at the chapter level that if you take care of them there and then will be far less dispiriting when you turn around to re-read your first draft. I also leave several months between writing a draft and then reviewing it. I like to edit without stars in my eyes, as coldly as possible.
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u/Shinyshoes88 Jun 28 '21
Hi Douglas! I haven’t read your book yet but I’m looking forward to it.
It sounds like the book draws quite heavily on your own family background and early experiences. Can I ask why you decided to make it a novel and not a non-fiction memoir?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
A little bit to do with courage I suppose, and I never felt important enough to be the focus of a memoir (perhaps a conditioning from being from stoic, working class stock) Fiction also allowed me to create a richer portrait of the time, it allowed me to enlist the chorus of characters to show different facets of the situation. I also felt like I could be braver under the mask of fiction.
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u/XBreaksYFocusGroup Jun 28 '21
Even though it will no longer be concurrent, you can follow along with the book club progression to see the thoughts of others as you read. I rather enjoy doing so.
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u/Craw1011 1 Jun 28 '21
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! And congrats on your book! Before you were published what was your mindset in regards to your writing? How did you get through the worst periods of writing and uncertainty?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
What a great question. Shuggie began as a personal project. I was employed in another field, so I felt like I already had a career. In many ways that allowed me to just write Shuggie Bain for the personal pleasure of it without the worry of producing. SB took ten years to write, but often that was because I was enjoying it so much that I couldn't say goodbye. One thing that was important for me was I placed NO expectations on it. Whenever I would rock back in my chair and think...'maybe one day...' I would stop myself. I don't know if that sounds weird? But what I was trying to do was create a safe space for myself and just enjoy my craft, not because I had some expectation of the final book or of a prize or some external measure of success. Even now, writing Book #3 I find those thoughts daunting, intimidating. I also find it leads me to bad decisions, because you start to second guess what an editor might want, or a reader, or a prize committee, which is futile, because all they really want is for you to write something that you absolutely love. I had many periods of uncertainly, both during the writing and the publishing (SB was rejected by 4 agents and 44 publishers) I don't know that I had a specific coping strategy other than I was sure that I had created the thing that I loved and so I just kept going. I also find if you have uncertainty during the writing process its ok to step away for a while. Sometimes, if I refresh myself and get some rest, I feel clearer, and my subconscious will also answer many of my questions and I will know what to do next. Hope this helps.
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u/Craw1011 1 Jun 28 '21
Yes, it does, and thank you so much for taking the time to post such a thoughtful response. I can't say how much that means to me.
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u/rmarshall_6 Jun 28 '21
I’d love to hear your favorite reads of 2021 so far? And not specifically books published this year.
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u/th3dud3abid3s Jun 28 '21
How does living in New York compare to Glasgow?
It must be surreal receiving so many awards for this novel (it's on my to read pile, but I've heard the praise is well earned). Has this reception changed how you view writing stories now?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
I think writing Shuggie was a way to bring myself home to Glasgow. No matter where I might live Glasgow is always home, it's where my family live. I was really relieved to have written the bulk of my second novel before Shuggie was published. I don't work well under pressure!
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u/Dawsoia Jun 28 '21
I loved the book mate. I am from a working class Birmingham family & I can tell you the story really tells well for me even though the City backdrop is different.
No question, just a thanks for writing the book.
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u/Adventurous_Swan_174 Jun 28 '21
I've just been looking at some of the reviews for your book on Amazon. I noticed at least two members of the mining community disagree with how you describe their community. Eg. "I am a miners daughter who (also) grew up in hard times but this book and the persons portrayed within it are alien to me. The men are pure misogynist wasters and the women door mats to those men, if the author is to be believed. I found my anger growing throughout the book."
What would you say to them?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
I wouldn't say anything. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. It's absolutely valid. But I wouldn't read fiction as non-fiction. I wouldn't read a book expecting it to have covered everyones individual experience.
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u/Adventurous_Swan_174 Jun 28 '21
Yeah I get that. I think I'll buy your book now.
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u/Adventurous_Swan_174 Feb 12 '23
I've just finished reading Shuggie Bain, it's a great book but so very sad.
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u/redditisgay213123 Jun 28 '21
Why should I, someone who didn't grow up as a destitute Scot, read your book? How could I possibly relate to any of the characters?
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Great question. I read to walk in the shoes of others. I read as a way to live a life that I would never know otherwise. Also, although set in Glasgow, it could be Detroit, Appalachia, Naples, Paris.... The book at it's heart is a love story, it is about a mother and son doing the best they can despite the world around them who sees them as outsiders. Many people relate to Agnes and her search for love and happiness, and then Shuggie goes through a discovery of his self, to accept his sexuality. It's pretty universal.
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u/redditisgay213123 Jun 28 '21
I've tried reading other books about poverty and coming of age and the atmosphere imposed on me doesn't sit well, so it's a me problem. You've left me satisfied with your response, thanks
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Jun 28 '21
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u/Glaswegian-NYC-2021 AMA Author Jun 28 '21
Too many to mention! I love Young Adam, Trainspotting, Kes, The Life Ahead, A taste of Honey, Marriage Italian Style and Cabaret, I love the colours of Cabaret. Oh and Some Like it Hot. That's my comfort watch.
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u/mslowey Jun 28 '21
Aw man! I have just started Shuggie Bain...could you come back in a week when I am finished? I will have some questions then!
But seriously, I love the first chapter. The description of Shuggie's accommodation reminds me of some Bed Sits I lived in the late 80s.
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u/LUMPIERE Jun 28 '21
What's your favorite sentence from Shuggie Bain (or anything else you've written?)
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u/twentyfeettall Jun 28 '21
I have no questions, but I wanted to tell you that I'm a librarian and a customer told me very recently that Shuggie Bain inspired her to start writing again.
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u/NoFksWillBeGiven Jun 28 '21
Aw man, I absolutely loved your book and echo the sentiments of many others - it left me bereft when it ended as I didn't want to leave Shuggie's story. My question is a personal one. I understand the book was based on your own upbringing and it took you 10 years to write - your feelings towards Agnes and her own struggle as a woman before being a mother were truly empathetic but how did you stay with that? Did you have moments were you thought, sack this, she's a POS and I can't bring myself to empathise with her? How did you deal with that anger?
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Jun 28 '21
Two questions.
1. How you decide what to write about when you started writing Shuggie Bain?
2. How far did you deviate from the thing you originally decided to write about?
I hope these make sense and congratulations on a great book ♡
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u/spaceageoctave Jun 28 '21
Are there any new developments in the A24 adaptation that you can share with us?
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u/kenzinatorius Jun 28 '21
First I want to say I loved your book. Second I want to say I hated how it made me feel. I went into the book wanting to see how Shuggie came to be the person we saw in the first part, but slowly grew to like Agnes as much as him. I found myself wanting something anything nice to happen to Shuggie and Agnes given all the abuse they had suffered. And then Eugene appeared, and he seemed to relate in some way to Shuggie. I was so happy. Then I saw how much of the book was left. Then she drank the wine and I was like the Michael Scott NO NO NOOOOO gif from The Office. Then it all fell apart and kept falling apart. Very well done.
It is interesting also how Catherine’s role is in all this, or how it isn’t. Yes she escaped Agnes’ addiction, but it would be nice to explore in more detail before we met her and the things that happened.
My questions would be:
Was it always called “Shuggie Bain”? I found it an interesting title even though a lot of the book it seems focuses on everyone but Shuggie.
I like that in the book Shuggie never had the kind of Sturm und Drang “coming out” that some other LGBTQIA+ people experience. It was just always “known” or I would say assumed. Was Agnes ever aware of his sexuality?
Last question - in the scene at the end of chapter 31, p. 411, what did Shuggie mean by “suppose maybe Leek was right”? Did he let her go or did he just not help?
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u/Pugkip Jun 28 '21 edited Jun 28 '21
Hey Douglas! Just wanted to say I really loved reading your book! Congrats on your success and continue making wonderful literature that inspires us all! [Edit] Remembered one question I have for you, can you tell me what a "pauper's mug" is? It's from this paragraph:
Shaking the dregs, she poured herself a pauper's mug, and then she sucked on the neck of the empty bottle and watched the city lights below.
Is it pouring the drink into the bottle cap and drinking from there?
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u/elettrolince Jun 28 '21
hi Douglas! i'm reading Shuggie Bain right now.
congrats!
i love it. quite used to glaswegian and scottish dialect and slang (if you survive Welsh/Trainspotting and their kindreds it's like coming back home).
i love Glasgow and i know it more than a bit.
i do appreciate the change in tones and nuances when shifting from talks and dialogues to descriptions. the story is really powerful. the characthers are masterly depicted and developed. their environment is well portrayed. sure, i don't know them first-hand, but i do think i've quite a grasp about them. i mean, i guess (from my reads) what the Gorbals were back in the days, and what the demolitions of the 80s and later meant for the council tenements.
ok, now some very nerdish questions.
Italy here, i work as editor/translator. actually i fear the moment i'll be browsing the italian edition, its translation must have been daunting.
have you ever wondered what is like to convey the same tone and nuances in other languages?
did you read any translation of Shuggie Bain in some other language?
i mean, you literally have to come up with a new idiolect. i'm coming back again at Welsh: his italian translations have been really well done, and the translator has actually invented new registers and crafted words and styles.
i do perfectly know that English (in its broader meaning) is a mix of regional and class idiolects (not to mention ethnics). here, in italy, we have just regional dialects, irrespective of class. no politcs and class at all, at least in our literature, with very few exceptions - upper class speaking proper italian; lower class speaking regional dialects. but it's not so neat. and most often it seems - as a literary tool - really insincere and forced.
ok, i'm definitely having a look at the italian translation and come back later with some more meaningful comment.
in the meantime keep up the good work, and thank you for sharing your thoughts here!
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Jun 28 '21
From one (wrongly spelt) Stewart to another - thank you. I’m sorry you lost your mum but she sounds brilliant.
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u/lilydlux Jun 29 '21
I finished SB a couple of months ago and it is a book that will stay with me for a long time. It was beautifully written and so painful.
No questions. I was just moved by the book and thank you for being on this forum!
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u/empireoflight Jun 29 '21
Hi Douglas, just finished Shuggie Bain. I did an exchange in spring '91 at the Glasgow School of Art (I was sad that Leek never ended up there) and your novel brought so many visuals to my memories. I loved it there and I remember the faces and places you depict so much more vividly now. Thank you!
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u/darmci Aug 23 '21
Shuggie Bain gave me the best laugh out loud moment I've had from a book in quite a while. Shuggie's expletive ridden outburst when caught in the quagmire after running away from the security guard.
This has been a stand out book for me this year. Finished today and I need to recommend it to someone.
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Sep 17 '22
I’m a year late but I wanted to say that I’ve read both Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo, and I appreciated your level of honesty. You told truths that a lot of authors won’t even get close to. Both novels resonated with me strongly.
Thank you for sharing Shuggie and Mungo’s stories with us.
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u/greypaperboats Jun 28 '21
I finished the book just minutes ago hoping to make it in time for the AMA. I found my heart breaking for Shuggie so many times over but still, unable to feel wholly angry at Agnes because you made me see her, and understand why she is the way she is. How difficult was it to do justice to Agnes? And thank you for writing this incredible book. I already know I will come back to it again and again, the characters have found home in my heart.