Publisher's Blurb

Douglas Stuart’s first novel Shuggie Bain, winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, is one of the most successful literary debuts of the century so far. Published or forthcoming in forty territories, it has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Now Stuart returns with Young Mungo, his extraordinary second novel. Both a page-turner and literary tour de force, it is a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a deeply moving and highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men.

Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo and James are born under different stars—Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic—and they should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all. Yet against all odds, they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. As they fall in love, they dream of finding somewhere they belong, while Mungo works hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his big brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold. And when several months later Mungo’s mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland with two strange men whose drunken banter belies murky pasts, he will need to summon all his inner strength and courage to try to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future.

Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in the literary world, Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the divisions of sectarianism, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.

My Review

I picked this book, for one reason alone. The author’s last book won the Shuggie Bain won the 2020 Booker Prize. So I was naturally intrigued.

But the book did not live up to expectations, at least for me. The narrative switches back and forth between a fishing trip Mungo’s mother has forced him into with two strange men, that happens in the present. And Mungo’s upbringing and incidents with his mother, sister Jodie and friend James that happen in the past. It takes a while to get a grip on things while abruptly switching between them.

Also in the dialogue between the characters, there is heavy use of the local slang. And some of the words and sometimes even sentences were beyond me.

Another thing the story’s summary does mention queer love story but it also has some very heavy themes of alcohol abuse, physical abuse, and rape. So this book might not be meant for a wide audience, since it can be triggering for so many readers.

I did find it fascinating to read about Mungo’s tender and caring nature and the relationship between his sister and him despite their mother forever abandoning them to be in profitable relationships with men on top of being an alcoholic. I was touched by Mungo’s thoughts and feelings and his innocence amongst all the chaos and that kept me reading the story.

Final Verdict

But overall due to the above-mentioned points I don’t think I enjoyed the book as much as I wanted to and felt like skipping huge chunks of paragraphs in the chapter because they felt needlessly long to the central plot of the story – Mungo.

Who Should Read This

Those who enjoyed Shuggie Bain might enjoy this novel as my book world friends tell me the story is very similar.