Young Mungo By Douglas Stuart

 

Young Mungo

By Douglas Stuart

 I loved this book!

Young Mungo follows Mungo, a young boy from Glasgow whose alcoholic mother is often MIA, leaving him with his sister Jodie who acts like more of a mother to him. At the beginning we get the idea that Mungo has done something wrong, leading into what presaged that information.

Mungo lives in a tough world full of tough men, where there isn't much to do or to look forward to. His older brother Hamish is somewhat of a gang leader and wants Mungo, who is much softer, to toughen up and be more like him: a MAN.

Mungo meets James, a Catholic (whereas Mungo is a Protestant) who lives behind him and raises pigeons he shows for prizes and glory. With James Mungo explores his sexuality, which both of them have to hide for fear of the men in their lives. James, a year older than Mungo, wants to get away and is making a plan to do so. As the two become inseparable, navigating this sexual awakening in the awkward ways of youth, Mungo decides he wants to run away with James.

When their relationship is discovered Mungo's mother, Mo-Maw, meets a couple of men at an AA meeting and sends Mungo on a camping trip with them, telling them he needs some men to straighten him out. While in this trip, the men show themselves as predators, using Mungo for their own ends and making it clear he isn't to say anything. Through a series of events Mungo does some drastic things to them in order to get away with his life.

I could fully relate to Mungo, in every way. His life paralleled mine so closely that it was almost like reading about myself. I appreciate seeing my experiences on the page. And Stuart does an amazing job of describing these situations, and Mungo's feelings and reactions to them. The prose was alive on the page, almost hypnotic. The settings and characters were so vivid it was like being there. This whole story is about predation, violence, and where we find safety and acceptance. Mungo's world was one of violence and neglect, and the people in it are destined to perpetuate the cycle.

This is easily a 5-star read for me. I loved everything about it, except the very ending scenario, which  can forgive because the rest of the book was brilliant. Stuart has a knack for the complicated emotions surrounding the working class lgbtq experience.