Three New Novels from the UK and Ireland
Montana Patrick Young Mungo, by Douglas Stuart Grove, 2022. Set in working-class Glasgow in the early nineties, Douglas Stuart’s second novel—the follow-up to his 2020 Booker Prizewinning Shuggie Bain—is centered on Mungo, a Protestant boy who befriends and falls in love with James, his Catholic neighbor. Amidst the backdrop of Thatcherism, a highly dysfunctional family dynamic, and a society that condemns even the slightest sign of softness in young men is a dark, often tragic and unyielding coming-of-age story. Young Mungo is a masterclass in characterization. I was taken aback by how vividly drawn Mungo, his family, and the other tenants of his council estate are. I saw them, heard them, and knew them in ways that only few writers, for me, have managed to evoke with such clarity and depth on the page. There’s Mungo’s mother, nicknamed Mo-Maw, an alcoholic given to frequent, long disappearances, and a history of bringing toxic men into the lives of Mungo and his two siblings. Some of the most heart-wrenching moments of the novel are seen in the glimmers of Mungo’s balancing act of devotion to and disappointment in her. Hamish is Mungo’s aggressive, frightening older brother, a local gang leader who frequently pressures Mungo into joining