CBR Passport – This book is set in Scotland, as was his previous novel, Shuggie Bain. That’s actually one of the many structural similarities between Stuart’s two novels – both are set in the council flats of Scotland, both are primarily narrated by a youn, gay Scottish boy with peculiar reactions to the world around him, an alcoholic mother and absent or dead father, and two elder siblings – a violent brother and a solid sister. However, the tone of this book is a good deal darker than I remember from the last novel. Shuggie and his mother had a relationship that was almost charming, from what I could recall – if also quite sad because of the impact of her addiction. Mungo and his mother, on the other hand, do NOT have a charming relationship at all. Mo’ Maw (what Maureen insists on being called, by her children and others, specifically to downplay her maternal relationship to her children) is a sad woman, whose cloying love never once veers into genuine connection with any of her children (despite her own belief that she is, in fact, close to Mungo).
The book opens with Mungo leaving his home, packed off for a weekend fishing trip with “friends” of his mother’s – there’s lots of talk about how this will “make a man” out of Mungo, and very quickly you get the sense that there has been some precipitating event that led to this strange fishing trip. Mo Maw instantly starts drinking as soon as Mungo leaves, and Mungo’s caretakers also start looking rather immediately for something to drink. This is among the first signs that something very bad will happen on this trip.
The book also flashes back to about a year before this trip, taking place in Glasgow in the 1990s . We learn more about Mungo’s family, and most meaningfully, James. Mungo doesn’t make friends easily, and always suspects that there is something different about him. Given his age (15), most people in his community are expecting him to start chasing girls regularly – but Mungo doesn’t really feel interested in that. One day, he meets James, caring for pigeons in his dovecote, and over time their relationship morphs into something far sweeter and more sensual than Mungo could have imagined. But in his community, not only is the fact of being gay incredibly dangerous – Mungo is a Protestant, and the brother of a notorious Protestant gang leader. James is Catholic – and in that part of the world, this is a huge obstacle to even a friendship, let alone a romance.
And here’s where it’s tricky to review this book. Douglas Stuart is a gifted writer – I do have to get past some of the Scottish dialect, which is both enjoyable and sometimes difficult to comprehend without access to Wikipedia from time to time. But dialect aside, his characters feel so very real and alive – even characters who are only in the book for a few pages. Notably, a clerk in a store, and a man who picks up a hitchhiker in a later chapter – both characters only exist within a VERY small frame of the novel. And yet, their presence was a real and thoughtful as any other character. I really loved that aspect of being in the world created by this author.
BUT – this book contains so much trauma. There’s a tiny bit of beauty and hope, but this book is really weighed down by some awful things – sexual assault, domestic abuse, neglect, addiction – all in a relatively short novel. I was just cringing through many chapters, hoping the thing I thought was going to happen wasn’t actually about to happen – and when it did, it was just crushing. So, if you do plan to read, be aware that this book is both wonderfully written AND a little bit crushing (not quite as bad as A Little Life but in that same vein).