Showing results by author "David Wilson" in Literary Fiction

The experience of smell is the closest thing we have to intimate human contact without actually having it. A woman's perfume, a whiff of tobacco smoke, a little bit of diesel fume, and some spearmint gum might come close to someone's first kiss, for example. Of course, it's impossible to create a first kiss without the human element, but for Jim Bronson, it's the best he can do.

George Worth is a grumpy lifestyle columnist. He hates fashion, mobile phones, computers and Young People. At night he goes home to a borrowed Labrador and feelings of guilt about his dead wife. Justin Smith is a Young Person. A bright newcomer, he’s always on his mobile to his girlfriend, surfing the Net and keeping abreast of the latest trends. Then comes the day when Justin’s girlfriend throws him out and he finds himself having to share a flat with George. As the women around them watch and wonder, both men start to work out what really matters among the distractions of modern life.

On a chilly San Francisco night, James Roberts steps out of his customary Union Square pub. He lights a final smoke before his nightly walk to a Chinatown apartment where he will invariably drink himself into oblivion in his living room club chair. As he smokes, a girl emerges from the bay fog, gesturing for a cigarette. In the flare of the lighter, he sees a blue and green bruise on her face, but before he can ask, she vanishes. In the coming weeks, he encounters her as before, giving her a bite of food or a smoke; their street exchanges, wordless.