And dammit is it dark. Spoilers below! <!spoiler tag!>
Mungo and James's beautiful innocence is juxtaposed against this brutal violence. Not just the physical violence mungo witnesses and is forced to partake in, but the casual neglect from his mother and her self obsession. And the paedophilia! Just so much abuse. I understand that in previous times (and unfortunately sometimes now) people equate being gay with paedophilia which is 100% wrong and disgusting. So I understood why there was this constant referencing between gayness and this, but it was jarring to read.
And the ending- mungo saying he would never see James again, but then james beckoning him- I didn't know if that meant they would run away together? Or that mungo had committed himself to this unhappiness, to staying with a mother who only loved herself and to a sister who would go on to live her life without them, and to Hamish who likely would be in jail.
Keen to hear others thoughts. I thought it was a brilliant book but my heart hurts.
by katandkuma
14 Comments
I took it at face value, that James had come back for Mungo and they would go off together as they planned, but then after I finished, came across theories that James was really an illusion and Mungo would be stuck in the cycle of violence, but I’m not sure there is anything in the book to support this. I suppose the ending can be taken as ambiguous.
It was a fantastic book, one of my favourites this year so far.
I just finished it today as well. Emotional, beautiful prose. I would like to think that Mungo followed James up north but I guess that’s the thing about open-ended endings; you gotta decide for yourself how it ended. I was fully expecting Hamish to burn James alive. Glad that didn’t happen.
I agree with u/bluebelle236 in that the ending was unambiguous. I read the last chapter twice to be sure. Mungo is going off with James at the end. He’s moving on and Hamish is stepping in to defend Mungo or at least stall whatever is going to come with the police. The character whose actions I don’t understand was Hamish. If Mungo being gay is such a horrible end why would he stick his neck out for his brother? Of all the characters Hamish is the one most likely to figure out what had happened at the loch, so does that mean he is in some way changing his attitude towards (accepting?) his brother? That change didn’t track with how I saw that character.
Overall I loved the book. I was really impressed with the pacing and momentum as the book progressed.
just finished this… do you have any recommendations for books similar besides shuggie
Just finished it this evening and had to find someone to talk to about it! I loved Shuggie Bain, but Young Mungo gripped me from the first sentence and is one of my favourite books ever now. It was obvious what was going to happen from the first line, and the reader was holding their breath waiting for the inevitable. It was paced so beautifully and maddeningly slowly.
My theory on Hamish is, even though he hates his brother being gay he has loyalty to his family and Mungo is a ‘Hamilton’ for what it’s worth. He loves his soft brother regardless. He didn’t know what happened at the loch and knew the police would likely run rings around naive Mungo. Plus, as others have said, there was little evidence against Mungo in St Christopher’s death, and nobody cares about two dead pedos. Several people saw Mungo looking scared and vulnerable in their presence. I think any court proceedings would have gone favourably against Mungo, hopefully. Or maybe going to prison on behalf of Mungo would be poetic justice for violent Ha Ha, even though he was a product of his environment as much as anyone else. I do like an ambiguous ending though.
I loved this book so much!
I just finished it and re-read the final chapter.
My opinion, I think Jodie asked James to meet them there to take Mungo. The author mentioned that Jodie’s head was burnt from sitting there so long and that she had visited James earlier. It doesnt seem as though she would choose to be with Maw and Hamish all day. I like to think she told him where they would be so James could take Mungo with him. Then the police came and they made a plan and James waited across the road for the perfect time to tell Mungo to come with him; and he did.
I’m a few months late, but I just finished this book last week and wanted to offer one extra clue that James and Mungo end up together. Stuart chose a famous photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans, [The Cock (kiss)](https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/tillmans-the-cock-kiss-p79302), for the UK cover. In fact, he said he was directly [inspired by this photograph](https://therumpus.net/2022/08/17/you-dont-see-the-whole-young-man-until-the-very-end-an-interview-with-douglas-stuart/) when writing the novel. That photo was first exhibited in 2002 (though it may have been taken earlier), exactly ten years after the events of *Young Mungo*. The young men in the photo look to be in their early- to mid-20s, which is the same age that Mungo and James would be in the early 2000s. I like to think that Stuart intended the photo to be a clue as to where Mungo and James ended up.
I thought that Hamish decided to take the fall for Mungo because it was obvious Mungo would never survive prison. Hamish would be much better capable of holding his own in prison. His family were horrible to Mungo but letting him go to prison was too cruel even for them
There will be no happy ending for Mungo and James
Temporarily reprieved at best
The food shack with all the family and James present is Mungo’s unconscious mind as he is drowned by Gallowgate
I know I’m late to the party but I happened to discover “Young Mungo” just a couple of weeks ago and it has stayed with me ever since. Personally, I have decided to not take the ending literally as it felt very unrealistic to me, all main characters coincidently happening to be in the same place the very moment Mungo comes back from his fishing trip and the police showing up at that exact moment to tell them about the body they found… (strange irony btw, isn’t it? Nobody found the campside for 3 f****** days when Mungo needed help so desperately but he’s barely gone from it and BOOM somebody finds the body…)
I didn’t get why Hamish would try to make the police believe he was Mungo, and it would never have worked anyway. I take it more as a metaphor, an allegory that Mungo will survive his ordeal, it will not break him as it very easily could. I think at some point in the near or distant future, he will find a place where he’s happy, safe and loved. It may take time, and I don’t know if it’s gonna be with James (I hope so, and the book clearly suggests it) or someone else. But in the end, he will find happiness. And this is not coming from an optimistic person, but in this case, I strongly believe Mungo will be fine at some point.
One thing that makes me not wanting to taking the ending literally is the fact that James is apparently about to leave the city, fully knowing that Mungo is missing and in danger (Jodie told him). I refuse to believe he wouldn’t want to wait until he knew about Mungo’s whereabouts. He wouldn’t just up and leave like that without knowing.
Finished the book this morning and still can’t get over it 😭
While I think that it’s not meant to be a happy ending, I believe it’s open to interpretation and I choose to see it as a happy one. While absolutely terrible, the things that happened at the loch let Mungo remove himself from his family. He’s not the sweet boy full of love anymore, and he starts to get fed up with his family. It is heartbreaking that James might have been ready to leave without him, but it’s maybe that last desperate chance in a sea of darkness and helplessness that’s enough to set him free. We know how James reacted to seeing Mungo’s face after the fight with the Catholics, how he immediately decided to go even if his life had gotten so much better. I am 100% James would jump at the opportunity to be with Mungo.
And while Hamish is a massive asshole and a horrible person, it’s also painfully clear how much he loves Mungo. He even calls him his baby brother, and whenever Mungo is in trouble, he comes through. It was said that he stepped forward almost immediately and didn’t hesitate to take the blame. I think he knew right away that horrible things had happened by how Mungo was acting – not hugging Jodie back, by looking him straight in the eye, losing all energy and humour. It’s not about honour or anything, it’s an older brother trying to, once again, protect his baby brother.
Yeaaah, this book is messed up and it messed me up, and I will be thinking about it for the next few weeks for sure 🥲
Reading the comments I come more to the realization that you can not define any certain ending for this story. There are multiple possibilities and various interpretations. I initially decided that this was it for Mungo. Police won’t be fooled and this is another life burnt by predetermination. I’m unsure if I’m being pessimistic, realistic, or just too familiar with these inevitable fates. To me, Mungo’s situation feels undeniably real. While it’s tempting to imagine a happy ending for this story, it’s equally likely that reality will prevail, shaped by the harsh circumstances of the ’90s. Lives have been burnt, scorched with loss and agony. Yet from their fertile ashes emerged the nurturing bed for the beautiful young tree of hope and progress we are witnessing before our eyes in 2024.
Just finished – I couldn’t put it down. I hopped onto believing Mungo and James end up together bc they deserve their happy ending.
The last few pages were full of so many absolutes (e.g. Mungo committing himself to unhappiness; leaving with James then and there; possibly going to prison) but I think that was meant to show the extremes that people in those situations have to face. There’s so many paths to take, but often only one action decides which one you go down. I like to think Mungo took Hamish giving himself up as an opportunity to go away with James and live in obscurity, but honestly I don’t know what happened.