text: In this novel, a mangled female body is found in the street after being eaten by dogs, and when a woman stops to investigate, a group of trick-or-treating kids steal her purse.
full_question: In this novel, a mangled female body is found in the street after being eaten by dogs, and when a woman stops to investigate, a group of trick-or-treating kids steal her purse. That woman in this novel makes money by singing at Oscar Reo's bar, the Gilded Cage. This novel begins with the protagonist walking in a graveyard and seeing the ghosts of people like Aldo Campione and Katrina Daugherty, whom he failed to save earlier in life. The pivotal event in the protagonist's life occurred when he dropped and killed his infant son Gerald while trying to change his diapers, an accident for which he exiled himself from his family for 22 years. Rudy Kraut and Old Rosskam are the homeless friends of former baseball player Francis, the protagonist of this novel. For 10 points, name this novel that follows Billy Phelan's Greatest Game as the final part of the Albany Cycle and was written by William Kennedy.
first_sentence: In this novel, a mangled female body is found in the street after being eaten by dogs, and when a woman stops to investigate, a group of trick-or-treating kids steal her purse.
raw_answer: Ironweed [prompt on the "Albany Cycle"]