Billy Nolan’s mother

… father had taken off after the failure of a badly managed gas-station venture when Billy was twelve, and his mother had four boy friends at last count. Brucie was in greatest favor right now. He was a Seagrams 7 man. She was turning into one ugly bag, too. But the car: the car fed him power and glory from its own mystic …

Billy’s mother dates multiple men and fights with Brucie at night.