Nonentity

Nonentity, Kirk Alex, Tucumcari Press, 2004

This is another volume in the story of Chance Register, struggling writer and former Los Angeles cab driver, now a resident of Tucson, Arizona.

He worked for a year or two in a warehouse that distributed pornographic films, until he could no longer take the backstabbing jerks with whom he was working. He is now almost 50 years old, unemployed and with only a few hundred dollars in the bank.

Nearly every day, he reads the local classified ads or rides his bicycle to the local state job center, looking for any type of work. Chance got rid of his car as a cost-saving measure, but it turns out to have been a bad move. Pedaling several miles to check out a possible job opening, then several miles back to his apartment, during an Arizona summer, when the temperature is over 100 degrees, is beyond brutal. When he gets to the company with the opening, they're closed, or they're not hiring, or the receptionist has an attitude problem, or the job looks really horrible. For Chance, the worst thing is when the hourly wage is at, or below, minimum wage (evidently, that's legal in Arizona). He seems to spend a large amount of his time cursing the evil, dishonest money-grubbers in this world.

The local cab company has openings, but Chance has no desire to even think about getting back in a cab. The biggest reason is that daily rent of the cab, and gasoline, comes out of the cabbie's pocket, so he has to make a certain amount of money each day, just to break even. At this point, a lesser man would be lying on the floor with a self-inflicted bullet in his head. The only thing that keeps Chance going is his desire to become a writer. He has one book already published, though it's not selling very well, and another book somewhere in the production process, that he would really like to become an actual book.

This is another well done, honest and heartfelt piece of writing from Kirk Alex. At one time or another, everyone can identify with Chance, being unemployed and very low on funds. It's short, easy to read, and well worth the reader's time.