What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Book starts with a young somewhat directionless young man in Nevada/Vegas going into a convenience store to buy something (to eat?).. outside the store he is met by a former acquaintance (fellow student) from college - the acquaintance is scared/nervous and hands him something (envelope) with information about an obscure sci fi story/author. Somehow the man accepts a job to go to South America (Colombia?) and signs a binding contract to do something (either write a novel, collect information, or find stories/work by obscure authors) - the contract has some rather draconian/threatening clauses if he should fail to deliver what he has agreed to.
He travels to South America (Colombia?) and spends time hanging out in the library (or building of records) were he attempts to do what he has been contracted to do.. unfortunately he does not make very much progress on his task and he entertains himself with other activities. He is also trying to find obscure works of authors that were published in various pulp type magazines of various topics and collectors pay him to help with completing and organizing collections.
He becomes obsessed with a certain obscure author that is purported to have written one of the best SciFi stories ever (a portion of it is in the book as a story within a story about a escape/breakout from an underwater prison on a colony planet and the escape and aftermath is viewed by a visiting crew of a spaceship that leaves as a rebellion or civil war is breaking out between the prison escapees and the other colonists)..
This book has stories within stories within stories so it becomes difficult to provide a clear picture of the overall plot...
The man while at the library/building where he should be doing work to fufill his contract is approached by a librarian/clerk who confides to him that he knows of this author and provides the man with an unpublished story of this author that was acquired by luck mostly.. the man doesn't read it initially but when he finally does he can't stop reading it - he is on a public transportation train at this time and when he finally gets to the end of the book he discovers he is parked in a rail yard as the train car has been out of service for a while (it is very late).. He goes back to the librarian and exclaims that the story was incredible and mindblowing.. the librarian says since he has shown that response the librarian can now actually tell him more truth - the real story -....
The man is searching for the author of this story and the man happens to find the author by chance at a party.. the man talks to the author expressing admiration but the author responds very angrily telling the man that he (the author) had lived in the apartment next to the man for many months about a year ago. The man says he doesn't think so. The author lists the address, the apartment, and describes the behavior and activities of the man... the man agrees that is where he lived and what he did but he still has no recollection of the author.. The author is still extremely agitated because of an early meeting when they first lived next to each other the author asked for help from the man and was "blown off" or the man had a party and didn't invite the author, or some social snub.. The author at the party reaches his limit and punches/hits the man - then the author leaves the party.. and with no contact information the man is still unable to track down this elusive author..

Background info. I read this book sometime between 2015 and 2018. I think the book was probably written sometime between 2006 and 2017. I would not expect it was written prior to 2000. The ellusive author the man is looking for does seem to have some similarities to the "Kilgore Trout" character found in some of Vonneguts books. It is challenging trying to search online for a book about somebody looking for an obscure author who writes SciFi stories in pulp magazines in Colombia.. etc.. the results obtained with search terms like that are not as useful as I would like.

Additional info: a story within this book is a "SciFi" piece about an escape/break-out from an underwater high security prison. the prisoners upon escaping confront the colonists who had imprisoned them and the meeting does not go well - fighting/warfare breaks out...the narrator (point of view) of this story within a story then says that they (the narrator person), at the commencement of hostilities between the colonist and the prisoners, they got onto their spaceship and left the planet because they did not want to get involved with the meaningless wasteful fighting..

This book would be easily recognized by anyone who has read it by the description of the "book within the book" about an underwater prison mass escape. This books plot/subject makes it problematic to search for it online. The story of a young man who has found an obscure yet amazing science fiction story and begins to connect with another person who also has read this story (and that person evidently lived next to the author of the story but doesn't remember it, although the elusive author does)..

I only read the first half or two thirds of this book and am very interested in finding and completing my read of it. I continue to search.

The Infinite Future?

That is the book! Thank you very much.

Sounds like a good book!