Rosewater for the Broken Hearted

Nights 157-174

There’s not much to recommend about the story that ended in the middle of this week. It was a tedious story about two lovers who seemed like they would never get together. They were both prone to fainting, and their friends kept using rosewater to revive them (Nights 165 and 166, p. 683, p. 685). The lovers kept telling their friends about how they thought they would die if they couldn’t get together. I found it tiresome and wanted them to just die already. And then, they did! I was surprised: it was not a happy ending, they just both died of heartbreak. Huh.

From there, we move to a story of an old king whose only son distrusts women and refuses to marry. The king wants his son to marry. But the son refuses, and the king throws him in the prison tower. It’s fine so far, maybe a bit slow. The most remarkable part is that we’re getting very short nights. The last night in this section, 174, is less than a page long.