Stuart and I spoke in a secluded part of a vaulted hotel lobby in Portland, Oregon, far from his home in New York City and just a few weeks short of the conclusion of an intimidating book tour schedule. Young Mungo offers readers hope and shock. Mungo, his Catholic neighbor and crush James, his older brother and sister, his mother, and an ever-expanding cast of Glaswegian locals live out stories of love, gang violence, and survival. Stuart’s follow-up, Young Mungo, tells the story of a Protestant young man, Mungo, who’s learning his way in the tenements of 1990s Glasgow, Scotland. He won the 2020 Booker Prize, completed a full online book tour, went on a multi-city multi-country in-person book tour, had tea with the Duchess of Cornwall, and most recently, began penning the Shuggie Bain TV script. Since the publication of his first novel less than three years ago, the Scottish-American writer has experienced a whirlwind. The humor and detail and grace exuded in Stuart’s work are exquisite, and they have not gone unrecognized. I couldn’t have asked for a better recovery companion. Admittedly depressed, isolated, and almost entirely bedbound, I entered the language of Stuart’s world and left forever changed-mostly immobile, still, but with a larger heart, well-lubricated tear ducts, and a full glass of hope. I began Douglas Stuart’s first novel, Shuggie Bain, a few days after I broke my spine by jumping into a lake.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |