The Condo Dwellers

Given a measure of financial independence by the serendipitous death of his father, Wesley Wilson cuts loose from the oppressive work confines of an insurance company, but soon finds that true happiness will elude him until he can spark a relationship with Holly -- a pseudo-hipster girl he met, fairly randomly, through an ill-meaning friend. He quickly devises a scheme to surveil her, work at her law firm, and monitor her romantic interests in the hopes of making her his partner in romance. Can Wesley succeed in this endeavor, or at least derive some measure of personal growth from the fiasco that ensues?The majority of the novel occurs in Chicago, during 2009. It addresses issues of gender relations, dating, privilege, and employment instability. It aims to hold a lens up to the modern culture of social media profiles, image sculpting, and voyeurism. All of this, through the eyes of a farcical, humorous, and unreliable narrator. With his myopic worldview, he ineptly navigates drinking establishments, social events, corporate politics, job loss, a burgeoning smoking habit, the procurement of unemployment benefits, prostitution, air and bus travel, and estate inheritance.Wesley's interests include chess, baseball, caustic personal criticism, and most importantly, spying upon the dwellers of a neighboring condo with binoculars. For in Wesley's mind, one can only discover a person's true nature via judicious surveillance, and not through their public-facing persona or actions.