Shuggie Bain (novel), Douglas Stuart

  Any day now I expect the title of the Man Booker Prize to be changed again because the current name not only sounds like a human with a penis but actually refers to a finance company of some description.  That's two strikes. The prize, under its various names and rules has been won by some fine novels and by plenty of duds. Shuggie Bain won the 2020 prize and is certainly one of the better ones. It's the story of a  childhood in the arse end of Glasgow in the good old days when everything was Margaret Thatcher's fault. Shuggie Bain, like most books, is longer than it needs to be but this is a powerful, deeply affecting novel, much of the power coming from the inevitability of disaster.  The characters  know that there is no avoiding their fate and the reader is a helpless spectator. Having finished it I feel the need to read something uplifting, something that conveys a sense of optimism and hope for the human condition.  King Lear, perhaps.