Douglas Stuart - Young Mungo

Acclaimed as one of the best books of the year by NPR, Kirkus Reviews , Time , and Amazon , and named a Top 10 Book of the Year by the Washington Post , Young Mungo is a brilliantly constructed and deeply moving story of queer love and working-class families by the Booker Prize–winning author of Shuggie Bain. 

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. Yet against all odds, they fall in love as they find sanctuary and dream of escape in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. 

But when Mungo’s mother sends him on a fishing trip to a remote loch with two strange men, he will need all his strength and courage to find his way back to a place where he and James might still have a future.

Comment: Last time I went to the library to check out some books I wanted for a book challenge, I saw this one in the novelty section. I had seen the title on GR before and was debating if I wanted to buy it or not some day, and there it was, for free, and I grabbed it right away.

In this confusingly labeled book, we meet Mungo, a 15 year old, just as he is leaving home for a fishing trip with two strange men. The setting is Glasgow in the early 90s, and life is difficult for everyone who isn't already well off. To make matters worse, in Glasgow there is also a separation between protestants and catholics, and it isn't easy for young people to befriend others not in their side. Mungo, however, finds a friend in catholic James, who loves pigeons, and they slowly start to feel as more than friends. However, life doesn't let people be, everyone needs to pick sides, to play a role for those around them and Mungo just seems to be too naive or too trusting. His mother and older brother find different ways to "turn him into a man", but what does that mean for Mungo's happiness and well being?

I have this habit of reading reviews by other readers after I finish a book, especially if the book is confusing or disappointing or something in between and then I only want to have a different POV. This means I've seen plenty people (even some of those who graded the book lower and higher than me) saying the same thing: this book wasn't labeled correctly. It seems as if the intention was to market this book as a young romance between two boys who should not be friends, as well as a coming of age tale in an unfair world. While this book has a little of these things, I would not say these are the descriptions that best fit the plot of this book.

I also saw that many readers loved the first book by the author (I didn't read it) and how similar this one was in theme and development. This said, I suppose I can have an idea of the author's style and to me, this means all his books will have despair and bleakness, sadness and unfairness, poverty and struggle, but not enough positive or uplifting elements to turn them into something "deeply moving". Well, it didn't quite work like that for me, at least.

The book is told in two different time lines and from what I understood, in alternate chapters. I will say that there were times I felt confused about what was happening when, not only because of the focus in Mungo, but because there is enough introspection and inner thoughts to make some passages too distracting. We also have the attention, at times, on secondary characters, namely Mungo's siblings and it's all so... I mean, I can understand the bleakness and the poverty setting as being realistic, but was it really necessary to only include terrible or depressing situations? Statistically, were all people in those poor neighborhood only doing bad things or presenting the worst examples possible for their children?

I do like that the author wanted to portray things realistically but in me this had the opposed effect: it seems some things that happened to Mungo were made to be out of proportion, even if the base was more common than what many imagine, indeed today. I also think that if the story had been more balanced, if there had been more romantic moments or even happy/sweet ones - even if the end was not to be a happy one - perhaps the bad things would have gotten a different vibe. The way the story happens and is developed, especially with what happens to Mungo, I was simply disappointed this wasn't really about the romance about the two opposed boys.

Apart from the fact that it is necessary to give a voice to people or sections of society which are mostly forgotten to the majority, this is a work of fiction and while all books cannot be a happy voyage, I also expected to have something more tangible in the romance and in Mungo's growing up. Mungo is a nice young boy, seems to have Tourette syndrome and has a beautiful face, and this puts hi in a certain category - he needs to be a man. The fact he ends up liking James, the catholic boy, and that they find solace in each other, didn't seem to be the worst thing about him as seen by others, but the fact he was so naive about the situation. Perhaps if Mungo had been already a tougher person, personality-wise, things would not have gone the way they went...

The family members around Mungo were also battling their own issues and it was very despairing to read about it because they had no other viable options. I kept thinking, surely they could have done things differently in life if they wanted, but at the same time, how? In real life things aren't as simple. Still, I was a little annoyed at how easy certain situations could happen and no one in authority gave importance to them, namely regarding the children while in school ages. I suppose I could debate the merits of how politicians decide to promote public school funding and programs when it seems it's all about economics, but that would take too long.

All things considered, I thought this would be a story about two teenagers who should be friends but ended up being that, while they lived in a terrible neighborhood but perhaps they would overcome that too. Hum, not really... I liked the fact I can now say I've tried the author, but the reading experience wasn't what I imagined it would be.

Grade: 5/10