Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a ...
Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good--her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion's share of each week's benefits--all the family has to live on--on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her--even her beloved Shuggie.
A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of �douard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.
Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, he moved to New York City, where he began a career in fashion design. Shuggie Bain is his first novel.
She would lie there, fully dressed, trying to pull her dry lips over her teeth, while he would say, "Good morning," and then quietly turn and leave for school. He hadn't wanted to leave without letting her know he would be right back afterwards. He took her pinkie in his and swore it. (查看原文)
Now, in the evenings, the eldest of the miners' sons stood at the train tracks with beers and bags of glue and watched with sadness and spite the happy faces roar by every thirty minutes. They fondled their cousins' tits under baggy Aran jumpers and ran across the tracks in front of the speeding train, their soft hair whipped by the near miss. They threw bottles of piss at the windows, and when the driver let fly his angry horn, they felt seen by the world, they felt alive. (查看原文)
如没意外，这将是2022年最佳的一本。可以和Hollinghurst的The Line of Beauty放在一起对比着读。同样是撒切尔夫人执政时期，同样是英国，“阶级”的鸿沟到底有多大，贫穷绝望的底层人才是“国策”的代价，看完太难过了，是Shuggie的坚韧和温暖的爱冲淡不了难过。作者语言功力了得，描写得好细腻，用了很多拟人和比喻，好多动词用得超级精妙。
道格拉斯·斯图尔特 作者
天空之城的支撑
译林出版社2022版
Verve
Picador2020版
衿语碎碎念
译林出版社2022版
三牙虫
译林出版社2022版
星尘
译林出版社2022版
卧听南窗雨
译林出版社2022版
理一分殊
0 有用 謐辻 2022-09-12 05:23:16 美国
來日會再讀。
0 有用 Cal 2022-05-12 23:35:55
poverty porn, is it not?
0 有用 wavyfly 2022-08-01 18:30:36
7/10 瑕不掩疵的優秀處女作！有些地方明顯寫散了，作家控制力還需打磨，但虐文的套路讓人一直揪心，完全放不下書。 酗酒、家暴、原生家庭、縱火、校園暴力、女泉、男同、戀桶癖、宗教不同、白人之間的種族歧視、底層互軋……那麼多buff疊加，如果不是半自傳，真的會讓人質疑過於量體裁衣。 非常多的蘇格蘭語對話和俚語，拼讀出來才能猜到意思，一次積極投入的閱讀體驗。
0 有用 马红猫 2021-12-10 13:04:58
2021最爱
11 有用 brucas 2020-12-09 12:48:28
苏格兰语戒酒文学（还好我有之前读著名苏格兰穿越小黄书 Outlander 打下的苏格兰语功底。。。）真的太会写了，很多精妙的比喻。非常有生活的文字。真心是身临其境，感同身受。到80%左右的时候觉得关于母亲醉酒的描写有点太repetitive了，但最后几章不错。尤其喜爱最后一章，痛到极致，也慢慢会淡的，但帮母亲拉好内衣的肌肉记忆却还在。
0 有用 Ιάννης Ξενάκης 2024-05-08 15:07:01 广东
布克奖彻底完蛋了
0 有用 Ava 2024-05-03 08:31:18 湖南
读这本书，太痛苦了，我为这个家庭感到悲哀。永远看不到希望，永远没有未来，第一次这么深入地了解酗酒者的痛苦，比弗利娇妻里的king最起码还有家庭的经济支持，但是Agnes什么也没有。一个家庭，到现在的地步，谁能够被责怪呢，没有人，孩子被酗酒的母亲伤透了心，觉得她没有承担起母亲的责任，母亲对自己的人生充满了灰暗，觉得一切都很无助。我看到Agnes自杀时想，你连死都不怕了，为什么就是不能戒酒呢，加油，敬... 读这本书，太痛苦了，我为这个家庭感到悲哀。永远看不到希望，永远没有未来，第一次这么深入地了解酗酒者的痛苦，比弗利娇妻里的king最起码还有家庭的经济支持，但是Agnes什么也没有。一个家庭，到现在的地步，谁能够被责怪呢，没有人，孩子被酗酒的母亲伤透了心，觉得她没有承担起母亲的责任，母亲对自己的人生充满了灰暗，觉得一切都很无助。我看到Agnes自杀时想，你连死都不怕了，为什么就是不能戒酒呢，加油，敬佩每一个敢于戒掉自己成瘾事物的人。 (展开)
0 有用 Xinzic 2023-08-17 00:56:36 湖北
很少从头到尾都充满欣赏地读完一本书，this is so well-written. 作家的灵气有几分只消寥寥数页就可辨别，而这本充分说明学院派同真正来自生活的文字相比根本不值一提。对几乎每个角色都印象深刻，尤其是姥姥姥爷，Leek和Eugene。
0 有用 Rachel 2022-10-25 21:59:00 英国
如没意外，这将是2022年最佳的一本。可以和Hollinghurst的The Line of Beauty放在一起对比着读。同样是撒切尔夫人执政时期，同样是英国，“阶级”的鸿沟到底有多大，贫穷绝望的底层人才是“国策”的代价，看完太难过了，是Shuggie的坚韧和温暖的爱冲淡不了难过。作者语言功力了得，描写得好细腻，用了很多拟人和比喻，好多动词用得超级精妙。
0 有用 謐辻 2022-09-12 05:23:16 美国
來日會再讀。