Mungo Hamilton

The central character in Young Mungo is Mungo Hamilton, a 15-year-old boy living in Glasgow’s East End. Jodie describes her younger brother as “a rare sort of handsome… Mungo had high cheekbones and a refined brow… His hazel eyes could bathe you in their glorious warmth, or he could dip them away from you and make you wish he would look at you again” (29). Mungo is a tender, sensitive, and devoted young man. He is particularly attached to his mother; several of the characters in the novel worry that Mungo prioritizes Mo-Maw’s well-being over his own. Jodie notes that there is an unusual “gentleness” and “kindness” (29) to Mungo. Much of the novel centers on Mungo’s navigation of his queerness, as well as the competing emotions of attachment and resentment that he feels towards the East End.

At the novel’s start, Mungo anxiously worries...