Living on Empty

When Jimmy Rodriguez graduated from college in 2008 he next expected to live the American dream. But the economy killed those dreams for him and tens of thousands of others of his generation. Many companies have frozen their hiring. Before everyone's eyes it seems as if the American Dream is dying a rapid and ugly death. 

Jimmy finds himself among the ninety-nine percent of his generation suffering in this mess. He's enslaved in a retail job where the customers mistreat him and the managers mistrust him. He tries to escape retail by applying to hundreds of jobs and attending numerous job interviews. But nothing ever materializes. He attempts to reject his past in order to move forward. However, his past is too stubborn to let him retreat without any scars to show. Then in fits of rage coupled with extreme boredom he begins to have hallucinations of Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen. His only release involves his ritualistic participation in a karaoke show at his favorite college bar, the Fish Bowl, where he finds refuge with the various masqueraders and misfits, who also frequent the bar. 

During one karaoke show he has a chance encounter with a medical student who later turns up missing. Jimmy finds himself loosely connected to the missing student. His disastrous obsession with a sexy bartender named Jasmine only pulls him deeper down the rabbit hole. A hole where false accusations manifest and a world he never knew existed confront him for the first time in his life. The more he tries to fix things the worse they become. Now he's in a race against time and sanity. He soon finds out he can't trust anyone--especially himself.