Book Review: The Wrinkly by Paul Collis

I like a good comedy, and I've seen one or two communities in Florida that have quite frankly scared me with their perfect appearances and promises of idyll, so this seemed like a good read for me.

Mike Lewis is 39, sells TV advertising slots & dates younger women. On a trip to Florida for a conference he discovers a community with wonderful leisure facilities and every class going to enrich a life. All the people he sees look happy. Returning home he checks into his financial affairs and decides to move there, announcing at his 40th birthday party that he's taking early retirement. It's only after he's paid the deposit on a rental home that he realises it's for the over 60s only. He's so sold on the way of life that he decides drastic action is necessary to blag his way in. Once there he finds himself playing plenty of golf, and meeting attractive women of various ages. However keeping up the facade provides good comedy material. While trying to adopt the gait, voice and habits of a man 20 years older he still finds himself fending of advances, ends up in a very confusing romantic situation and finds the golf club is being used by drug dealers.

The basic premise is a bit far-fetched, and at the start I didn't understand why Mike was so easily hooked on the idea of moving to Goldenville, but if you get past that and enjoy the ride there's some good humour to be had from the situation. The author also makes his motivation for the move a little clearer later on in the book. Many of the characters are larger than life and although Mike felt like the only fully developed one the ensemble cast helped make the book.

The plot is pretty simple and provides some nice humour. There is some wonderful description of Mike's encounter with manatees and his visit to the Everglades which I particularly liked, and found so evocative I assume they are close to the author's heart. This wasn't a particularly long book, and it was a nice, easy fun read that left me in a good mood. If I was the sort of person who kept a pile of books for summer/holiday reading this would sit nicely in that pile.

Format: Kindle, review copy
My Rating: 3*