Young Mungo

Young Mungo is the second novel by Scottish-American writer, Douglas Stuart. It tells the story of a poor Protestant family living in a tenement in Glasgow in the 1990s. It alternates between two time periods several months apart. In the earlier sections, we're introduced to the notorious Hamilton family. Mo-Maw is the alcoholic mother of three who neglects her family as she searches for true love. Daughter Jodie who is still in high school is forced to pick up the slack and tries her level best to keep the household running. Hamish, the eldest sibling, is a brutal gang leader who already has a child of his own. Mungo is the youngest child and dearly loves his mother despite her horrific flaws. He is fifteen years old and immature in many ways but is beginning to explore his sexuality and falls into a relationship with James, a young Catholic boy, who raises pigeons. Both boys are lonely and yearn for a place they can go where they will be accepted for who they are but in their world homosexuality is abhorred and the boys are forced to keep the nature of their relationship secret. Nonetheless there is talk and disapproval. His mother and his brother decide it is time to "make a man" of him. Hamish forces Mungo to participate in a street fight with the Catholics and, although he avoids assaulting other boys, he is viciously attacked. In an egregious exhibition of poor judgment his mother sends him on a camping trip with two seedy members of her AA chapter to learn the manly art of fishing. I found the story of that expedition so disturbing that I had to put the book away for a few days.

 Stuart is a master of character, atmosphere and dialogue and there are some heartbreakingly tender moments that almost made me weep. Young Mungo is a powerful work of fiction but it is a brutal read and won't appeal to all readers. 

(Stuart's first novel, Shuggie Bain, was awarded the 2020 Booker Prize and I will read it once I've had a chance to digest this one.)