Waiting for Shuggie Bain

We seem to be in a gay proletarian renaissance … not a rebirth really, but a first birth, and centered on childhoods. First of course, Édouard Louis (whom we've read v.i.). Next Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous which I'm sure we'll read soon (or surely hope we will—soon!). And now Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain, to be published next month.

In the meantime, readers can get a taste of Stuart's writing in last week's New Yorker : "Found Wanting". Shuggie (or someone very like him) dips his toe in the Glasgow pool of the last century's last decade (advert above). He gets many replies but responds first to a thirty-eight y.o. "Solicitor". No trigger warning, however. This is not Dennis Cooper. Indeed, prepare for a coup de (d)rôle!