The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

(an exam that you never fail, unless you are afflicted by wealth)

Even if they found themselves in Heaven, our countrymen would find occasion to remark that it was not as warm as Hell.

Why do those who call for independence and freedom take away the independence and freedom of others?

No surprise, then, that sometimes I dreamed of trying to pull a mask off my face, only to realize that the mask was my face.

But amnesia was as American as apple pie, and it was much preferred by Americans over both humble pie and the fraught foods of foreign intruders.

for in the last two years only 150,000 soldiers had died, in addition to the requisite number of civilians. Imagine how many would have died without a truce!

he responded with one of those looks of pity and amusement I was by now so used to getting, the kind that implied not only that my fly was undone, but that there was nothing to see even if it was.

they welcome their soldiers home, ready to treat any unmentionable afflictions with the penicillin of American goodness.

Principle five: statements, not questions, were less likely to lead to no.