Ok, this is an unpopular opinion..this book just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t connect to the characters...I have read better accounts of alcoholism and this one, tho unblinkered, just didn’t really touch me. I am not a hard heartless reader. It just didn’t do the magic for me that books can do.
The writing felt a bit clunky at times..e.g.
‘She took out the familiar vodka bottle’
‘She moved towards them with a slack mouth’
Little things like that, that sounded as if words could have been removed. Or maybe just rewritten.
The section when Wullie was in hospital nearly made me give up on the book. Even bearing in mind that this family is so dysfunctional, that section was very poor. This isn’t how people act in hospital, or how nurses act...or how children speak. i know Shuggie is a little different from other children, but that whole section was so unreal it just made me despair. Was it supposed to be amusing or insightful? It was neither.
..the characters didn’t feel real to me and I never felt I got beneath the surface of them. I generally enjoy miserable books so it wasn’t that. It was more that I wanted more depth to each little story..because the book seemed to be lots of little stories.
So I am sorry to the Shuggie fans but this book didn’t win me over at all. I am surprised it is shortlistedfor the Booker. After books like the English Patient, Milkman, Lincoln in the Bardo, the Remains of the Day, Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies, The Sea, the sea...not sure how this compares...but then The Testaments was a joint winner last year and if that can win....then I give up all hope of the Booker picking the best of the best based on book alone....

Other people have connected to Shuggie so this is just a minority opinion. But it is mine, don’t hate me for it.