Summary

Young Mungo alternates between scenes occurring mainly in Glasgow (“The January Before” sections) and scenes occurring several months later (“The May After”) when Mungo travels to a loch with St. Christopher and Gallowgate.

In May, Mungo Hamilton, a 15-year-old boy in Glasgow’s East End, leaves his housing project to go on a fishing trip with two unknown men. His “eyes began to twitch with one of their nervous spasms” (3) as he waves goodbye to his mother, Mo-Maw. As members of Alcoholics Anonymous, the two men use fake names. St. Christopher appears “withered and jaundiced” (6) while Gallowgate is lean, young, and fashionable. Mungo considers his own mother’s alcoholism. The men take a complicated series of buses to the countryside. As they travel, St. Christopher and Gallowgate drink heavily, ask Mungo inappropriate questions, and touch his mysteriously bruised body. They tell Mungo that...