You wore the same suit, you chose your tie carefully, there was a mistake about your change on the bus. Half an hour before it you had laughed. Then your hands were an ambush. They betrayed you. It happened so quickly. The consequence was forever" (McIlvanney 1). Through this passage it becomes quite clear that much of what Tommy is feeling would be exactly the same as many Glaswegians. The sense of ambush, betrayal and permanency would surely be evident when overnight many people had lost everything. Even more relatable would be the feelings of uncontrollable rage. As the novel progresses we discover Tommy's actions are primarily a direct reflection of his confusion and uncertainty surrounding his sexuality. In chapter five it is revealed that Tommy is likely a homosexual, although not admittedly so. It is Harry, Tommy's supposed lover, who echoes his suppressed feelings, "You're terrified that you're gay" (24). While it is certainly not my belief that suppressed homosexuality was a common theme amongst Irish men in the 1970s, I am of the mind that the anxiety, confusion and utter uncertainty surrounding the subject are feelings members of both sexes at the time would strongly relate to. Much like Harry's "hardness of his own experience made him forgive Tommy at once, whatever he had done" (25), I believe the same guttural and sympathetic reaction would be shared with readers at the time, experiencing similar emotions. .
While Tommy personifies much of the anxiety of the 1970s, it is the novel's title character, Detective Inspector Jack Laidlaw who exemplifies another common trait amongst Glaswegians at the time, antiauthoritarianism. A seeming walking paradox, Laidlaw simultaneously manages to embody everything a man of the law should and should not be. While he practices his police work diligently, the question of whose side he is actually on arises throughout the novel.
