Janice Raymond

This is a very realistic book about alcoholism, child neglect, homophobia and poverty. I found it tedious in that each chapter brings another sad situation of Shuggie’s mother caring only about where her next drink is coming from while Shuggie fends for himself and continues to hold out that she’ll get better. I guess I kept reading in hopes that something would change in Shuggie’s pathetic life. Spoiler alert, it didn’t.