I finished Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart on April 8th, 2023 and let me jump straight to the answer of the question that you didn’t know you had. Would I recommend it? Well, to anyone who is a fan of suspense, drama, and queer fiction – Yes, I most certainly would! (But let me warn you that you will never see pigeons in the same way. Every time I see one, I am now injected with a little bit of heartache.)

The Plot

Young Mungo is the story of a gay, teenage, boy living in the throes of working class, 1990s Glasgow. The city is divided between the Protestant and Catholic groups, whose men/boys often find themselves in literal battles for territory. The Protestant gang is lead by Mungo’s older brother, Hamish.

Mungo makes an unlikely friend of a Catholic boy, James, and the two start to fall in love. However, the novel is set in a time and place where being gay is dangerous. So, this could lead to deadly consequence for both boys if it becomes public knowledge.

In a catenating timeline, Mungo is sent away by his mother to go fishing. He needs to “learn to be a man” under the guidance of two strangers that she met at AA. But the men turn out to be very shady characters, indeed. Will he survive the trip and get back to James?

Ah – the plot! It makes me want to read it all over again.

When I look up the genre for Young Mungo online, I get coming-of-age, and gay fiction, spat back at me. Both of which are appropriate for this novel. However, I like to think of it more as romantic suspense mixed with queer drama. I’ve also seen family drama declared on a page on the Google-machine, which also makes sense. In any case, this novel spans multiple genres, and it is crafted beautifully.

Douglas Stuart

To start, I want to write a little about Douglas Stuart himself. When you pick up any of his books, you’ll see that he has a long list of awards, and has also been a finalist for many. Naturally, the most punctuating of these is the 2020 Booker Prize award for his debut novel, Shuggie Bain. A Booker Prize for a debut novel? Talk about impressive! Not many authors can say the same. Young Mungo is the first novel of his that I’ve read so far. But after finishing it, I can say that he deserves every award that he’s got. He is a talented author that is capable of weaving intricate and compelling stories. I’m a fan for life, Douglas!

Mungo Hamilton

Douglas Stuart has developed the hero of this story down to every last detail. Mungo’s arc is a massive one, and it’s filled to the brim with family dynamics, self-discovery, and survival. He is a sweet, kind, and gentle character. But he is also a people-pleaser, who reminds me a little of a kitten who was weaned from his mother far too early.

Mungo shifts between forms of who he thinks others want him to be. For example: when he’s with his mother, he returns to a childlike-version of himself that also caters to her needs. No matter how much his mother neglects him, he loves her. When he’s with his brother Hamish, he plays the harder and more violent role, while also being on the constant defense against his attacks. No matter how badly his brother abuses him, he loves him.

There are multiple scenes in the novel where Mungo tries to show his true colours to the ones he loves – but they are often flourished with a figurative flinch-and-shield. The only one that accepts him for him is his lover, James. Mungo is self-deprecating, highly-sensitive soul that has to learn to stop pleasing others and fight to be who he really is. He is also irrevocably and effortlessly easy to fall in love with, and I can say, without a doubt, that I’ve fallen.

Hamilton Family Dynamics

Mungo’s family, the Hamiltons, are highly dysfunctional, and the impact of it showed through each of the characters. His mother, Maureen (Mo-Maw), is a neglectful alcoholic, and his father died, leaving her to raise the children on her own. His older brother, Hamish (Ha-Ha), is a drug-dealing, gang leader, who asserts his dominance as the man of their household in their father’s absence. In contrast, his older sister Jodie takes over the motherhood role and raises Mungo in Mo-Maw’s absence. As the youngest, Mungo is left floating somewhere in between.

When I come across characters who are neglectful – especially a mother that abandons her children for self-serving reasons – I’m guaranteed to hate them from the get-go. This is very personal to my own neglect/abuse in my childhood. I’m not going to expand much more than that. But Douglas has developed his secondary characters well, and has included enough back to story for to help you understand why they are how they are.

Maureen

Maureen is a self-serving alcoholic that pops in and out of her children’s lives when it serves her. Her children name Maureen’s drunken, alter ego Tattie-Bogle to help protect and distance themselves from this version of her. And as a child that grew up with an alcoholic parent, this struck a very big nerve and choked me up enough to take pause after I read it. I can tell you first hand that this is a very realistic element of such a thing, and it is horrid. But, as an author, having your audience relate to your characters is also a pinnacle of our art from. So, despite the emotion, I appreciated this.

Jodie

I also related to Jodie. She’s a highly intelligent and capable character, who feels the weight of the responsibility of having to raise Mungo. Talk about something else that hits home. I saw a little piece of myself in her. But the Hamilton disfunction also affects her character as well, and I like that she made many realistic mistakes backed by her history, despite how Mungo idolizes her. She often coddles and encourages Mungo, but I believe that she needs him as much as he needs her.

Hamish

Hamish is terrifying and erratic. Douglas also expanded on his desire to fill the gang-leading role of his predeceased father, and his actions very much lean into this. One thing I’ve learned as a writer is that your characters actions must be based on their history, desires, and fears. You can’t change how they act simply to serve the plot. Hamish is a great example of this. He leads with violence to uphold a perceived expectation, and symptoms of this bleed into both Jodie and Mungo’s characters from the three growing up together. However, we see bread crumbs of Hamish’s softer side, and I loved that. The ending of the book was particularly impactful to Hamish’s true character underneath the mask-of-a-role that he played.

Also of Note

Violence is a big part of the Hamilton family dynamic, and none of the characters get out of this unscathed. I appreciated how this came out later in the developing relationship between Mungo and James. Violence comes first, love comes second. It was a big part of Mungo’s foundation. So, it made complete sense that he’d act this way based on his family dynamics.

Mungo and James

The romantic relationship between Mungo and James blooms slowly and naturally. It has honestly given me a whole new angle of perspective on how two teenage boys would fall in love. There was plenty of play-fighting and teasing, which feeds into the societal perception of how “boys” should develop relationships. This enforces how Mungo’s actions are driven by his family background.

It also mirrored a “straight-narrative” in the fact that James says privately to Mungo that he can be only be his boyfriend if Mungo will be his “girlfriend.” James also tries to enforce that there is a time-limit to how long he and Mungo can be their authentic selves. James’s father puts him under immense pressure to become “straight,” and James is forced to get a fake-girlfriend to uphold this ideal. In contrast, Mungo is constantly worried about what could happen to them if Hamish finds out, and is always dodging hints at his sexuality. Their hidden queerness causes a whiff-of-death-and violence to flow through the air of this novel. As a reader, you wish that this wasn’t the case, and that they wouldn’t have to hide it at all.

Mungo and James develop their romantic relationship in complete privacy. Any public affection that crosses the lines of friendship is swiftly smothered before anyone can see. This speaks to the societal pressures that queer people face to hide themselves and blend in to what is “normal.” If not, they face the consequence of abuse, death, or living as outcasts. Just like the only character Mungo has to confide in other than James – Poor Wee Chickie – who is labelled as a child-molester to the rest of Glasgow.

Wow. Impact. As a queer person, these themes have massive impact, and they definitely hit their intended targets.

Other Interesting Points

At first, I wasn’t a fan of the Scottish dialect of this novel. But over time I became accustomed to it, and I found that it really helped me “hear” the characters. As a Canadian reader (with nothing but an estranged, Scottish heritage), it was hard to understand sometimes, but it was an important part of developing Mungo’s world.

Also, the violence in this novel got to me on a deeper emotional level than I expected it would. There were multiple scenes of gang violence, and the thought of these boys having to take these risks and endure this physical suffering in the name of defending religious territory was actually hard for me to endure. Douglas described them in such masterful, realistic detail, that I could picture them vividly, and they made me very sorrowful. As a writer that has crafted some horrid scenes myself, the personal impact of this surprised me a little. But it’s just another testament to how brilliant a writer Douglas Stuart is.

To conclude this section, completely out of the blue – Saint Christopher and Gallowgate can go fuck themselves.

The Ending!

Oh, the ending! Many parts of the novel are heart wrenching, but none other than the finale and ending. I love, love, love that Douglas Stuart left the ending loose and interpretive. I – being the hopeless romantic that I am – like to think that Mungo went away with James, and they lived happily ever after in a land where they could be free to be in love and their authentic selves. Hamish’s personal sacrifice for Mungo also made me think of the immense power of love, and how it has the ability to soften even the hardest of hearts. Amazing. I simply loved it, and I definitely wanted more.

To Conclude:

This novel is a beautiful, masterpiece of literary art. I recommend it to any reader that has the stamina to endure having their heart in a vice. You have my applause, Douglas Stuart, and I thank you for touring me through one of the many worlds that I’m sure are in your head!

Carpe vitam!