After dropping out of college, Quoyle lives in Mockingburg where he struggles to fit into society and sustaining an income. In a laundromat in Mockingburg, Quoyle meets Patridge who soon becomes his best friend, or rather his only friend. As he was desperate for friends, he finds himself spending most of his evenings eating dinner with Partridge and his wife, Mercalia. Mercalia, later helps Quoyle get a job at the local newspaper as a reporter. Unfortunately, Quoyle finds himself being fired and hired multiple times by the editor, Ed Punch. Struggling to be stably employed, he finds low-paying jobs in between the newspaper reporter. Though Quoyle finds his reporter job to be inspiring, he was a terrible
