Omar Ashmouni’s Reviews > The Flowers of Buffoonery > Status Update

“Go on then, laugh. At this point, even fleeting peace is too much for me to bear. I cannot love a woman without smothering her with commentary. Proof that if a man is dumb enough, he can do harm without lifting a finger.”

“as if one among them had not just killed another human being, though I suspect this new development will elicit shouts of joy. Serves him right, etc. How cruel of you. What part of what you see here is carefree? If only you could understand the sadness of the ones who grow the delicate flowers of buffoonery, protecting them from but the slightest gust of wind and always on the verge of despair!”

“Beautiful feelings make bad literature.”

Welcome to Sadness. Population one. A poetic line with a familiar ring, straight from the gates of the inferno, but I had thought it might work well here, as a glowing opener. I have no other defense. Even if this one line spelled the downfall of my novel, I'm afraid I wouldn't have the guts to cut it. I might even put it this way, for good measure: deleting that first line would mean erasing my entire life thus far.