from The Invention of Everyday Life 
The novelist is feeling pleased. Having altered

somewhat the original emphasis, his novel is going

well for a change. It is now mainly about a young

woman who becomes a recluse after her lover kills

himself in her beauty salon because she wants to

break off their seven-year relationship.
In fact the young man is only seriously

wounded and in critical condition for a while, but

eventually recovers. It is the well-known heart surgeon

who is going to operate who is the one actually

shot and killed, in a suburb not far away. A different

surgeon, soon to be equally famous, performs

the successful operation.
The young man’s family, who have never

liked his girlfriend, have ‘a change of heart’, so to speak,

and relent in their opposition to the marriage.

Long, emotional discussions follow between the

mothers, apologies, gifts are exchanged. The

engagement is announced and a trousseau planned.

The Castel d’Oro is booked for the reception. Soon

a little van with tablecloths and bed linen piled in

the back begins to appear weekly in front of the

young woman’s mother’s house. There is an engagement

party with truckloads of food and drink and a

bazoukia band so loud that the police are called by

a distant neighbour who must not know the situation.
At the wedding the bridesmaids will all wear pale

blue and the groom will wear a red carnation like a

bullet hole over his heart.