My thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for the ALC of “Young Mungo”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. I’m very sorry this worked out so badly. Mungo’s mother - Maureen - ‘Mo-Maw’ — sent him off on a fishing trip with strangers: St. Christopher and Gallowgate. When you lose your parents at an early age, you lose most of your possessions, so I don’t really attach value to things. However, I do talk to my dog’s ashes every day. Her name was Margaret, Peggy to her friends.

It was a funny thing to observe; near strangers who had shared some of their deepest shames, their most vulnerable moments, were now gathering to make small talk about the weather or if Charles, Ron (5 April 2022). " 'Young Mungo' seals it: Douglas Stuart is a genius". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022 . Retrieved 24 February 2023.The blurb makes it seem like it's a forbidden love story between a Protestant boy and a Catholic one. This forms just a small part of the storyline. The main story is more like a bildungsroman, but not in a good way. This is going to be the very first ARC I am rating as a 1 star and I hate doing this. But giving it two stars will not represent my experience accurately. It was just a waste of my time and a terribly frustrating read. The only reason I didn’t DNF it was that it was an audiobook. The book is uneven. I found it overly long and couldn’t help but think some tightening up would have helped. Dinnae worry,’ grinned Gallowgate. ‘We’ll get you away frae that scheme. We’ll have a proper boy’s weekend. Make a man out of you yet, eh?’”

I don't want to make you think that this is a bad book - it's not, and Douglas Stuart is probably incapable of crafting a bad novel, as his talent for psychological writing and scene-setting is just stellar. "Young Mungo" also needs to be applauded for relentlessly depicting the reality of violence against queer people, and the fear that society instills in gay men, the destructive self-hatred it aims to evoke. Douglas does a spectacular job illustrating that, and he also writes impressive scenes of physical intimacy between Mungo and James. Plus to be a fair: Not everything that happens follows a cliched formula, but too much does. year old Mungo is the youngest of three siblings. With an absent dad and an uncaring alcoholic mom, Mungo grows up primarily bonding with his 17 year old sister Jodie, who is forced to take care of the home along with her studies. Their elder brother Hamish is a gang leader and head of a Protestant group that engages in violent fights against a neighbouring Catholic gang.There is none of the sentiment or accidental empathy here that accrued to the mother figure in ‘Shuggie Bain’, by dint of the reader spending so much time in her sozzled company (hogging the limelight from her son, whose name after all does adorn the cover). The new book by the author of Shuggie Bain! As gritty and heartbreaking, but also gorgeously showing the sweet love between two Glaswegian boys. Jodie felt the floor tilt underneath her. Like a gable end slated for demolition, the front facade of her fell away and the private contents of her life rolled out. She was being torn down, and every mismatched bed sheet in her mind was to be exposed for all to see." Finnish: Nuori Mungo. Translated by Laura Jänisniemi. Helsinki: WSOY. 21 April 2023. ISBN 9789510492529. Religion plays a role in both with interestingly mothers that seem far less concerned at crossing the religious divide than those around them.

In spite of everything, Mungo adores Mo-Maw (as Shuggie Bain did his mother), and when drink changes her, he’s the one who cleans her up and gets her to bed. The kids then refer to her as Tattie-bogle, which is the Scottish word for scarecrow. Young Mungo". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 28 January 2022 . Retrieved 24 February 2023. The stylistic shifts capture something deep and true. In a world where the days are “dreich” and everything happens in a haze of “smirr”, love is – as one character knowingly observes – the light that “through yonder window breaks”. The risk of sentimentality is always there, as it was in Shuggie Bain. But Young Mungo is a braver book, and more truthful, for his having taken that risk. There are many wonderful characters, including kindly neighbours who love Mungo. There is also politics. A teacher tries to explain to Jodie’s class the reason for the violence and despair. Dutch: Mungo. Translated by Kitty Pouwels and Josephine Ruitenberg. Amsterdam: Nieuw Amsterdam. 7 April 2022. ISBN 9789046829417.I for one would love for Stuart to complete a trilogy of Glasgow novels. ‘Old Mungo’ would be as satisfying a title as any for the third, because one thing that fascinates me about the world of extreme poverty, deprivation, and violence depicted so powerfully here is what modern Glasgow looks like beneath the scars of her brutal past. What is this city and its people like today? What remains of the tenements? Is it haunted by the blood and violence that stalked its streets and took place behind closed doors? There is such an ominous tone to the story and you can't help thinking that this won't end well for our young protagonist. But you read on hoping for a chink of light in the darkness of his miserable life. Douglas Stuart is masterful storyteller and he has created an unforgettable character in Mungo. It's a powerful, heartbreaking tale from one of the very best writers around. Molly Young for The New York Times noted the "mad grandeur" of the novel and the "beauty" of the language employed by Stuart, while also criticising the descriptions of the characters' emotions, since the plot, according to Young, gave the reader enough information to understand them without needing to reiterate them. She also spoke negatively of the violent events in the story and stated that some readers might feel like "misery tourists." [25] The violence of the plot was also criticised by Kevin Quinn of Post Magazine, who said it risked overshadowing Stuart's literary skill, while praising the construction of Mungo's inner life. [26] Television adaptation [ edit ]