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Always On The Clock, Patrick Font

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Always on the Clock is a partial collection of stories centering around the working lives of men and women in Houston, Texas, that explores failed notions of the American Dream. Houston, my hometown, is not perfect by any means, but, given its cultural diversity, I do find it to be the perfect backdrop for the struggles my characters face as they yearn for better versions of themselves, however unattainable their desires may be. This is all to say that Always on the Clock is a satire of American obsessions and culture—work and upward mobility, public education, sex and relationships, parenting, …