Further to my post last week on Young Mungo, I just finished Shuggie Bain by the same author. Similar story and setting but different and equally as devastating, albeit for other reasons. It's all too easy for those of us not facing any form of addiction to look down on those who are and to completely miss the impact on families, especially children.
My heart absolutely broke for Shuggie. Life is hard enough when you know you're different from other kids but dealing with his mother's addiction and the feeling that he was to blame was just so hard to read at times.
In hindsight, I wish I had read this one first as I am left wanting more of Shuggie and his point of view. As he's the titular character, I expected him to be the main focus but that fell to his mother, with Shuggie almost being a side character. I wish there had been more Shuggie but at least we got that with Mungo and, I guess, the two characters are parallels/extensions of each other. Either way, I see a lot of myself in those boys and I hope the world was more kind to them after the pages stopped.
by syphonuk