Sublime

holding up his end of the bargain as the last fig leaf of his dignity.

blurring the lines between us and them can be a worthy behavior.

I found the Vietnamese in America both intimate and alien, but Vietnam itself was simply alien.

(Nothing, the General muttered, is ever so expensive as what is offered for free.)

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

happiness, American style, is a zero-sum game,

Usually Bon used words like a sniper, but this was a spray of machine-gun fire that silenced me for several moments.