Slum Boy

Slum Boy

By Juano Diaz

Genre:-Memoirs/Autobiography: general/Autobiography: literary/Scotland/Poverty & Unemployment/Autobiography: arts & entertainment

Pages:-288

Publisher:-Brazen/octopus

Blurb:-An utterly inspiring story of a young boy's self-discovery through art while growing up in the slums of Glasgow in the 1980s

John MacDonald must find his mother.

 Born into the slums of Glasgow in the late 70s, a 4-year-old John's life is filled with the debris of alcoholism and poverty. Soon after witnessing a drowning, his mother's addictions take over their lives, leaving him starving in their flat, awaiting her return.

 A concerned neighbour reports her, and he is forcibly taken away from his mother and placed into the care system. There, he dreams of being reunited with her. His mind is consumed with  images and memories he can't process or understand, which his eventual adoptive parents silence out of fear as he grows into a young man within a strict Catholic and Romany Gypsy community.

 This memoir is about how John found his way to his true identity, Juano Diaz, and how, against all odds, his unstoppable love for his mother sets him free.

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My Review:-John is four-year-old and is living with his mother, he never knew his father a South African. John's mother goes out one day and doesn't come back, a neighbour makes a call which ends in John being adopted by a Traveller Catholic and Romany family, where he's taken from Glasgow to the countryside. At school John doesn't like all his lessons, so skips them, but Norma a teacher sees something in him. It's not long before John is working with his adopted father in the scrap yard. It's not long before John's only escape is Glasgow School of Art and the gay bars in the city. But what has the future got instore for John? I don't like saying to much and given anything away. This book is full with emotions, some are really heartbreaking. There is everything in this book, alcoholism, poverty, homeless, trauma, neglect and more. I read this book in one sitting as it gripped me from the start. Highly recommend.