angels

angels by denis johnson published 1983.

angels is a plain language and pedestrian story with gratuitous violence, the rambling 'already dead: a california gothic' is a much better read.
After leaving her husband for good reasons, a mother fleeing on a greyhound joins paths with an alcoholic ex-navy petty thief who takes her to party in Pittsburg. She and her two babies follow him to Chicago after he splits having burned through his money and his fingers. After arriving at the Chicago bus station without any resources, the mother toting the two babies is taken in by a random hoodlum who proceeds to drug and gang rape her.