Wrinkles

A truly astonishing and original work of fiction, Wrinkles is the story of a life lived forty-four times, from childhood to adulthood to old age. It is a story of one man, a writer, who is born, who grows, who loves, who stops loving; who eats, sleeps, smokes, lies, boozes, cheats, regrets, has sex, has dreams, and lives. In short yet intimately detailed chapters, each covering a single aspect of his life from youth through old age, we get to know this person fully through the small yet telling incidents that make him who he is. He remembers the taste of a cigarette, the feel of his army uniform, the scent of a lover, the strange and unexpected touch of a college professor’s hand, and so many more small experiences that can never be shaken off.

At once poignant, funny, and troubling, Charles Simmons’s Wrinkles is a dissection of an ordinary existence made extraordinary through reflection—a brilliant celebration of the not-so-simple act of being alive.