![]() Mungo is about fifteen, and when the book begins, his mother is sending him off on a fishing/camping trip with two unknown men, to “make a man out of him”. It’s not clear what has transpired, only that Mungo is covered in bruises. ![]() Mungo idolizes his older sister Jodie and fears his abusive brother Hamish. He also slowly develops a friendship, and then a relationship, with James, a boy who lives across the street. They live in a world where being gay will get you jailed or killed (at best, your family would never speak to you again). ![]() These two books are similar in a lot of ways, so if I can criticize anything it’s that Stuart isn’t breaking new ground here – Young Mungo is also about a sensitive young boy living in Thatcher-era Scotland, dealing with poverty, violence, and an alcoholic mother. He’s a boy who has to care for his mother much more than she cares for him.Īnd yet, it didn’t feel like the same story. While Shuggie Bain is told over many years, this story unfolds in a short period of time and revolves much more around secondary characters other than Mungo’s mother. Stuart manages to write about very ugly things so beautifully. Stuart has written a second pull-your-heart-out-and-stomp-all-over-it book, one that did not disappoint for a minute, even considering how much I loved Shuggie Bain. ![]()
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