24th August, 2025 in Recommended Reads

Portraits in Time and Life by Owen Wells

“The wind moved low and steady, brushing past my face like a breath too soft to belong to anything living. Seafoam rolled in lazy, lace-edged curls, collapsing with a hush that seemed meant for someone else. I kept walking, though I didn’t know where I’d come from—or if it even mattered.” The novel, Portraits in Time and Life: The Past is Never Forgiving, by Owen Wells, explores the sorrow of its elderly protagonist, Charlie, as he must relive and often forget a cascade of memories following his diagnosis and care in an assisted living facility. Owen juxtaposes the current with the past as Charlie comes to terms with many of his past faults and successes, often perceived with clarity only in these reflections, while observing his daughter’s experiences in her own toxic marriage issues. Portraits in Time and Life challenges us to expand our viewpoints of a purposeful life and whether we would want to re-experience the series of decisions that constitute our lives.