Joe Coughlin

Joe Coughlin is the novel's protagonist. He is a complicated man, intelligent, often charming, and soulful, yet wild and dangerous, whose personal difficulties are rooted in his problematic relationship with his father. The youngest of three brothers, Joe is the stereotypical rebel, but he also is more firmly tied to his father than his siblings are. He has developed a philosophy that scorns what he sees as the ruse of conventional life's respectability, embodied in his father, a prominent police officer. Joe knows that Thomas Coughlin has been on the take for a long time, and he regards this activity as theft concealed under the guise of law enforcement. He thinks that being an outright criminal, or as he puts it, an outlaw, is less hypocritical than pretending to uphold the law while secretly breaking it. Yet Joe also loves his father, and this love-hate emotion is...