Mungo Hamilton
The title character of the book is Mungo Hamilton. He is a fifteen-year-old protagonist who calls a working-class neighborhood of Glasgow ripped apart by sectarian differences home. He is on the Protestant side of the cultural divide and is dealing with the dawning awareness of his homosexuality.
James Jamieson
The first object of Mungo’s awakening sexual desires could not be a worse candidate if he had set out to try to find the most problematic person in Scotland to fall for. James is a little older and his same-sex attraction has already been noted by his father who has given his son the corrective instructions to find a girl to date. Making things even more problematic for Mungo is that Jamie is on the Catholic side of the sectarian divide.
Hamish Hamilton
Worse for both Mungo and James is that Mungo’s older brother, Hamish, doesn’t act like he looks. Hamish looks like every school’s biggest nerd, but he is, in fact, a ruthless leader of the Protestant Billy Boys gang engaged in unending violent battles with their Catholic counterpart, the Rhoyston Bhoys. Hamish is the personification of the toxic masculinity that does not just expect men to behave in certain ways, but punishes if they fail to do. Homosexuality, of course, is not one of those certain ways that is not to be expected and is sure to be punished.
Maureen Hamilton
Better known as Mo-Maw, the expectations of masculinity from Mungo is further compromised by his being an all-out mama’s boy. Maureen is an AA member, but her alcoholism has gone on so long and run so deep that Hamish and their sister Jodie have fairly well taken emotional leave of their mother. As a result, Mungo is not just the baby of the family by way of birth, but also because she has become almost utterly dependent upon him to be not just her son, but her best friend, caretaker, and, of course, her crutch.
