Mungo and the Picture Book Pirates

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Atmosphere and literary flourishes have been given the highest priority. Plot progression, the lowest. The plot here goes in every direction except straight ahead. Bear in mind that this is called ‘Young Mungo’, which clearly signposts the boundaries of the novel’s scope. Equally clear is that the ending is likely to irritate those same readers who were annoyed at how ‘Shuggie Bain’ ended. Or, rather, petered out (me included, though I am more ambivalent about the ending of this book). this is undoubtably a very raw story, one that is equal parts captivating and horrific, but i think it will take a certain kind of reader to see that kind of brutal honestly and value it. Of course, that makes him a perfect target for Hamish and the other louts of Glasgow’s East End. When the book opens, Mungo is getting on a bus with two questionable-looking men, heading off on a fishing trip up north somewhere. He’s sixteen but looks much younger. His mother is waving good-bye from the window. 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.

Book Review: ‘Young Mungo,’ by Douglas Stuart - The New York Book Review: ‘Young Mungo,’ by Douglas Stuart - The New York

In a Nutshell: Depending on what you like as a reader, you are either going to love this book or hate it. Very few will fall in the in-between range. Unfortunately for me, I hated it. The audiobook made matters worse. One elephant in the room I want to get out of the way first: This is not ‘Shuggie Bain 2.0’, even though it features a similar setting and milieu. And an alcoholic mother called Mo-Maw. When Jodie asks her brother Mungo: “What on earth would you know about the ways of men, eh?”, what she should be warning him about are the ways (and wiles) of women. Apart from those trigger points, there is also the ‘wee matter’ of the Glaswegian dialect. Admittedly I had to carefully reread many sentences to make sure I got the gist of what was being said or inferred, not to mention having to Google quite a few words that I did not understand at all (here I think a brief glossary would have been helpful for international readers). I cannot even begin to imagine what listening to the audiobook must be like. Dinnae worry, grinned Gallowgate. We’ll get you away free that scheme. We’ll have a proper boy’s weekend. Critics, armchair and otherwise, have not only been decrying ‘Young Mungo’ as ‘Shuggie Bain’ in a different cagoule, but are already lamenting the poor departed muse of author Douglas Stuart, who seems perpetually fixated on Glasgow.

Just as Shuggie Bain isn’t a story for everyone, neither is this one. It’s disturbing and triggering in so many ways. But because of the tender love between those two boys, Young Mungo felt a little more hopeful to me. That ending … I’d really like to meet them again, for instance, as side characters in Douglas’ next book (which I’d like to be a little less dark), just to know they’re happy and doing okay. It is harsh, ugly, and frightening, and it comes from events so hideous that I was sure I would lose my rag and start screaming incoherently at the Kindle. And it was, in this reader's angry, bitter judgment, the only and the best way he could have behaved. It was a boy, cooked in a bath of rage, becoming the only man that bath dissolved the fatty, weakening childness off of him to be. A warm thank you to Netgalley, the author and Grove Atlantic for an e-copy. This was released April 2022 and I am providing my honest review.

Book review: Young Mungo, by Douglas Stuart - The Scotsman Book review: Young Mungo, by Douglas Stuart - The Scotsman

His short stories have been published by The New Yorker. His essays on Gender, Class and Anxiety are featured on Lit Hub.Beyond these sat the broken promises of Sighthill. The high-rise towers were only twenty years old and were already in a state of disrepair. They were the tallest buildings Mungo had ever seen. The tops of them disappeared into the dense clouds, like a stairway to somewhere above the endless rain, or like a strut trying to keep the ceiling of dark cumulus from collapsing and suffocating the entire city." Instead it's just a series of bad things happening to a character that I don't care about occasionally interrupted by interludes of characters the reader is even less invested in and in one instance the actual child rapist.

Mungobooks - AbeBooks - Poole Mungobooks - AbeBooks - Poole

It's a long time since I've felt such sympathy for a fictional character. Mungo is so confused and anxious - he even has a tic that makes his face twitch when he gets stressed. He yearns for compassion from Mo-Maw, treats her like a queen and gets nothing in return. When his friendship with James looks like it might turn into something more, you're absolutely rooting for him. If anybody deserves a shot at happiness it's poor Mungo, a caring, thoughtful boy who has been dealt such a bad hand. They hung on each other affectionally, wide manly hugs, bodies never touching but full of love and rage, eager to stab and maim the Royal Catholics”. If only I could, I would give this many more than 5 stars - heartbreaking, breathtaking and very memorable.We’ll look after ye, Mungo. Nae worries. We’ll have some laughs, and you can bring yer mammy some fresh fish”. In a second timeline, his mother sends him off with two of her “friends” from Alcoholics Anonymous. Suffice it to say, they are not on the wagon and their intentions are not pure. I couldn’t begin to understand the mother’s reasoning. 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. They are members of Alcoholic Anonymous. S’pose my maw thought it would do us awesome good to get some air about us”. In case anyone is wondering if “Young Mungo”, is as good as “Snuggie Bain”, by Scottish-American Douglas Stuart, the gifted 2020 Booker Prize winner - the answer is YES!!!!

Young Mungo: 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 | TIME

Again the story is set among the mean streets of Glasgow, but this time we're in the 1990s. Mungo Hamilton is 15, the youngest of three Protestant children. His mother Mo-Maw is an alcoholic and rarely seen at their small flat. Instead, he is raised by his sister Jodie, only a year older but with a steeliness and wisdom that belies her youth. Eldest brother Hamish is feared gang leader who spends most of his time organizing battles against the hated Catholics. Mungo is lost, but he does make a friend in James, a young neighbour who races pigeons. The time they spend together is an ocean of calm amid the stormy seas of Mungo's everyday life. Intertwined with the main plot is an account of a fishing trip that Mungo is sent on with two older men, and a sense of foreboding is hard to ignore. 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?’” When Mungo and Jodie go to her rescue by fabricating an excuse as to why she is needed in their flat, and Mungo innocently asks as to why she stays with the bastard, Mrs Campbell launches into a long diatribe justifying her husband’s appalling behaviour: “Ye’re too wee to know anything about men and their anger.” I never read Shuggie Bain but saw it got lots of accolades. So, I was excited to listen to Stuart’s second book, Young Mungo. But I really struggled with it. It’s not a bad book. In fact, it’s incredibly well written. But it’s such a sad, deep, dark, ugly, depressing story, I had to force myself to keep with it at times.

Set in the autumnal Highlands of Scotland, Mungo is a horse who has seen better days. Now, old and lonely, he has nothing to look forward to. But, slowly, he is introduced to a series of new friends who share his meals. As the seasons change, and winter comes, Mungo is taken away to his winter stables and his loyal friends must work out how to stay with him. Find yourself in Jill Newton’s beautifully illustrated Scottish Highlands, and join Mungo and his friends on their adventure. The story comes in two timelines – one detailing the fishing trip and what happens to Mungo with the two strangers his mom has assigned him to; and one about the events that lead to the fishing trip. The temporal setting is for me fascinating and important. “Shuggie Bain” was set over the period 1981-1992 with Shuggie from 5-15. No year is specified her but an Auld-Firm reference sets the book firmly in 1992-93 with Mungo approaching 16: so that in both calendar years and ages this book is a sequel to “Shuggie Bain”. Some of the alcoholics were eager for the meeting to be over, others were worried about what would happen when it was”.