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<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\nOFF THE SHELF<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Shuggie Bain By Douglas Stuart- The 2020 Booker Prize Winner<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Douglas Stuart\u2019s avowedly autobiographical first novel is a story about poverty, addiction and abuse and therefore was seen by members of the group as a grim experience. However, Stuart portrays such an understanding of the relationship between a child and a substance abusing parent that the book was held in esteem by most of the book club members. Stuart definitely has the ability to combine love and deep sadness, giving equal weight to both. The book is set in the 1980\u2019s in Glasgow\u2019s filthy tenements and progresses to the exploration of life in a mining village just outside the City.<\/p>\n Shuggie\u2019s mother, Agnes descends through the degrading stages of alcoholism, ever more vulnerable to ever more predatory men. Her only constant relationships are with her children, whose knowledge of her disintegration is therefore intimate and private. The oldest, Catherine, marries in her late teens to get away from her mother and moves to South Africa. Alexander, \u201cLeek\u201d, is a gifted artist who carries around with him a two-year-old letter offering him a university place, stays to try to teach Shuggie how to \u201cact normal\u201d \u2013 i.e., appear to conform to the norms of working-class Glaswegian masculinity, which does not come naturally. Leek also stays in faltering hope of saving Agnes, until one day she throws him out, leaving the young teenage Shuggie as her sole carer.<\/p>\n Stuart\u2019s depiction of women is very harsh and as one member said it is a book that is \u2018heavy on lines, with colloquial dialect and language\u2019. The work shares a picture of a roller- coaster life with immense highs and lows. As the book draws ever nearer to the ending, we are left reeling with many emotions but there was no doubt in our minds how wonderful Shuggie is and how we all shone the light for his future.<\/p>\n The group scored the book 8 out of 10<\/p>\n Isobel Davies<\/p>\n OFF THE SHELF Shuggie Bain By Douglas Stuart- The 2020 Booker Prize Winner Douglas Stuart\u2019s avowedly autobiographical first novel is a story about poverty, addiction and abuse and therefore was seen by members of the group as a grim experience. However, Stuart portrays such an understanding of the relationship between a child and a substance abusing parent that the book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[347],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-39R","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13705,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13705","url_meta":{"origin":12143,"position":0},"title":"Cardiff And The Bute Family","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st October 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 CARDIFF AND THE BUTE FAMILY \u00a0 Anyone living in the Cardiff area will have heard the word Bute. It is associated with many areas such as Bute Docks, Bute Street, Bute Park and many more. But how many of us know where the Bute family came from and how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reader's Travel Tales"","block_context":{"text":"Reader's Travel Tales","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=125"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Mount-stuart.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14794,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14794","url_meta":{"origin":12143,"position":1},"title":"Discovering St Donat\u2019s","author":"Alan Williams","date":"18th November 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"DISCOVERING ST DONAT\u2019S \u00a0 St Donat\u2019s Castle is an intriguing place and there are plenty of opportunities to tour and visit. The site has a proud history from its use as an Iron Age fortress, home of the Celtic Chieftain Caradog, to its purchase and development by the American newspaper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Picture2.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4677,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4677","url_meta":{"origin":12143,"position":2},"title":"The Marble Gall","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"We often refer to the Marble Gall at our talks and on our walks and usually comment that they are regularly confused with Oak Apple Galls which we have never seen. On the Orchard Walk in May we saw one for the first time and this was on the border\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12497,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12497","url_meta":{"origin":12143,"position":3},"title":"Before The Coffee Gets Cold","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd November 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 OFF THE SHELF \"Before the coffee gets cold\" by Toshikazu Kawaguchi I think we all found the idea of this book interesting. Who would not like to go back in time, even for a few minutes. The book provided lots of discussion. The writing at times was a little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8854,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8854","url_meta":{"origin":12143,"position":4},"title":"My Mother\u2019s House by Lily Tobias","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th December 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF My Mother\u2019s House by Lily Tobias was written around 1930, so the style of writing is different, in so far as it is lyrical, explanatory and very vivid. The story concerns an intelligent boy who wants to break away from Judaism. The beliefs and actions of Judaism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14060,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14060","url_meta":{"origin":12143,"position":5},"title":"“Metronome” by Tom Watson","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th March 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"OFF THE SHELF \"Metronome\" by Tom Watson This dystopian novel was highly praised on BBC TV programme \u2018Between the Covers\u2019 We had mixed feelings; most agreed that it was well written and portrayed the desolate island landscapes convincingly. The thoughts and feelings of the characters drew the reader into their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12143"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12145,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12143\/revisions\/12145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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