Spoiler-free
The Premise
Young Mungo is an LGBT+ coming of age story following the title character navigating working class life and parental neglect in 1990's Glasgow.
The Review
This was a case of right book wrong time. This is a sad and a bit of a trauma dump book, which took me a while to get through. There are moments of hope and love sprinkled throughout but largely it was very bleak and depressing. Man, Mungo has it rough and I do feel for him. His mother is an alcoholic who's M.I.A most the time (not in the fun paper planes kinda way) and has an abusive brother, Hamish, and a sister who's doing all she can to keep herself and brothers afloat in the midst of poverty. It's a lot to read about, especially when horrible things consistently happen chapter after chapter but that's literally life sometimes and it's painful to witness.
"I telt ye, I'm gonnae show ye how to be a proper man. I'll no have ye embarrassing me." - Hamish
If you want an idea of atmosphere and tone then Young Mungo is reminiscent of the show Half Man. Both have prevalent themes of sexuality, abusive and neglect. And both are incredibly bleak and miserable. I actually think an adaptation of Young Mungo would go down very well and I'm sure I'd be glued to the screen. I'll just have to be sure I'm mentally prepared for the inevitable depression.
The title character Mungo is very much a victim of circumstance. He mostly lacks agency and is required to do other people's bidding, no matter what they want. It's tough to witness a character, who seems so helpless to his poverty stricken surroundings. That is until he meets James. Together, Mungo and James find sanctuary from their tubulous lives in a pigeon dovecote, built by James to raise his prize racing birds. Yet, even these moments of respite summon a dark shadow. James is Catholic and Mungo is Protestant. This adds yet another layer to their already forbidden love and it's unbelievably frustrating how nothing can seem to go well for our Mungo. It's kinda funny that this is the second book I've read in a row with a Catholic vs Protestant story line, despite both being in complete different locations and time periods. (Shogun being my last book read.)
"And your earlier question about fightin' Catholics. It's about honour, mibbe? Territory? Reputation?" The baby reached out and grabbed Hamish's pinkie. Hamish smiled sweetly, "Honestly, ah don't really know. But it's fuckin' good fun."
Mungo's sister Jodie, is bright and constantly at odds with their mother Ma-Maw, and rightfully so. Ma-maw disappears for days at a time and reappears angry, aggressive and severely drunk. She hates Jodie for taking up her role of care, despite leaving her no choice. Despite this, Mungo has a soft spot for his mother which frustrates Jodie to no end. Ma-maw loves to say how Jodie is turning her weans against her LOL. I really enjoyed this family dynamic as this inexplicable feeling of love Mungo has for their mother is just as valid as the explicable feeling of hate Jodie has for their mother.
There's no doubt that this is an excellent book and written beautifully and the setting of Glasgow in the 90's was a delight to be in despite the hardships faced. However, for whatever reason things just didn't stick with me. it took off but never landed and it kinda just plodded through the same hurtful emotions. With spooky season being well underway I think my mood warranted for something more fun and less bleak so I'm sure this book would have hit differently being read under different circumstances. I wish I had more to say about this one but like I said - right book, wrong time.
🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑- 3 stars
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