This is set in the early 80s, and 15-year-old Mungo, raised by siblings and partially raised by an alcoholic mum in a very Protestant family, is lovable and handsome, but a flystrip for misfortune. Described as not very bright, with facial tics, he knows there’s a distance between what people say and mean, but doesn’t always pick up on it. He’s met with roughness from all the men in his life (especially his older brother Hamish) except for James, a Catholic, gentle, tall boy in town whose mother is dead and father is gone working an oil rig. Older brother Hamish has a 15-year-old girlfriend and a baby, lives with his “sort of mother in law,” is rough with Mungo, mercurial, and most painfully, thinks Mungo isn’t masculine enough and that reflects on him. He feels he needs to “sort out” his younger brother. His older sister Jodie, whom he loves, is dutiful, but needs respite from “pretending to be Mungo’s mother.” He has her to lean on, and Jodie has no one, as they never know where their mother is (off getting drunk, mostly). She has nervous tics too, works at an Italian cafe and basically supports the family, while having an affair with a man who keeps promising to leave his wife for her..) In one scene, Hamish brings Mungo along to a castle. Mungo is desperate for a chance to bond with his sadistic brother, so he helps knock out the night watchmen (who first grab Mungo – but he shows unexpected strength and knocks them out). They get away in a violent tangle, and Hamish is impressed with Mungo’s fighting. He encourages him to fight “the Fenians” and steal. He meets James, raising pigeons, and James becomes the only gentle person in Mungo’s life. This makes for a sweet bond until Mungo’s programming towards violence causes him to eventually cruelly erupt at James, upon James’ sharing that he wants to leave Glasgow for a better place. They wrestle. Mungo gets so violent and bruised, he is later punished for instigating, and his mother sends him away on a camping trip – with her loathsome pals from Alcoholic’s Anonymous in charge of him. The ragtag bunch goes to an incredibly remote ground to fish, 40 miles away from the nearest other soul. And this, for a city kid, is intoxicating. An unspoiled forest – it’s a really beautiful, silent place. He’s a city kid and can’t get over the hues of the sky, then the incredibly starry night sky – the visual language is gorgeous here. These men are telling crude stories – there’s some humor with innocent Mungo taking their euphemisms too literally. They’re rough with Mungo under the guise of “making a man” out of him. The scenes at this location take a turn for the unbearably ugly – Mungo is raped by his mother’s friend Gallowgate, and then heavily victim-blamed. Gallowgate uses the fact that he suspects Mungo is gay as a reason for why he “wanted it.” He had bonded with the man who eventually raped him – actually coming out of his shell a bit, which makes this more confusing for him. This parallels with his memories of sleeping with James for the first time, falling in love, makes for an intense read. In one final altercation with his rapist, Mungo remembers he has his brother’s gifted knife on him, and reaches for it, then takes an opportunity to plunge it into the rapist’s stomach. He bleeds out in the water and Mungo tries to sink him. The body surfaces in a few days, and in the meantime Mungo walks to catch several buses home. Returning home, Mungo wants desperately to “share his pain with (his Mo-maw and family). But he listens to his rapist – some part of them would always be clouded towards him, would think of him differently and wonder what he did to deserve it. He ends up thinking he needs to follow in his brother’s footsteps – find a girl, and get her pregnant, and become the man Hamish expected him to be. At the final scene, the police arrive and want to speak to Mungo, knowing his was the last person to be around Evan (the rapist’s real name).
