Wrinkles

American author, editor, and critic Charles Simmons’s semi-autobiographical experimental novel Wrinkles (1978) comprises 44 topical vignettes, each about three to five pages long, which create a mosaic narrative examining the idiosyncrasies of its unnamed protagonist from childhood to his mid-fifties in the present day. The vignettes cover a broad territory, ranging from fashion to drug use, to the man’s family relationships and the unique challenges of living in New York City. Part of the novel breaks from the man’s lived experience, speculating about his future. Considered one-of-a-kind for its experimental construction, Wrinkles has been celebrated for its realistic portrayal of the chaos, hardship, and joy of modern life.

The novel’s 44 “chapters” each begin with a recollection of an experience drawn from Simmons’s life, moving through the protagonist’s emotions and thoughts. The anonymous man is introduced as someone who was born, presently lives, and will die in New York City. A writer by trade, white, in late middle age, and divorced, he teaches literature part-time to make ends meet.

The first vignettes are impressions, or “wrinkles” of his early life. He recalls receiving a meager allowance of a nickel from his parents, joining wrestling in high school, and getting expelled. Later, he recalls the feeling of his Army uniform, the first taste of tobacco, and a homoerotic experience with a college professor. The man makes few judgments about these experiences, speculating only occasionally about what other people were motivated by; rather, he confronts his own motivations, focusing primarily on how he felt at these different moments. In one vignette, he meets a famous film critic at a party and goes with her to see a pornographic film called “Deep Throat.” Noting that he has had many quasi-sexual experiences, he wonders if he used them as a substitute for real sex and intimacy. Other topics in his early life include birthdays, marriage (and his ambivalence of marriage), drinking, friendship, one-night stands, and his most memorable possessions.



In many of the vignettes, Simmons expounds on his life philosophy. He admits that though his protagonist will strive to transform his experience into literature, he will mostly be unable to. This frustrating project comes to fruition in the writing of Wrinkles. Through this confessional style, Simmons gets his voice.

In his protagonist’s later life, he covers such topics as the invention of numbers and other abstract objects, the deaths of friends and other loved ones, and his regrets about the missed opportunities of youth. At the end of the novel, the vignettes turn to more metaphysical reflections, considering not only Simmons’s future life and eventual death but the fate of humanity and the universe. Though still cognizant of his smallness and ambivalent about whether his life has ultimate meaning, as he approaches old age, Simmons’s protagonist appreciates his wrinkles more and more.