"I had sat on exactly such a splintery toilet seat throughout my childhood and remembered very well..."

“I had sat on exactly such a splintery toilet seat throughout my childhood and remembered very well the catfish jockeying for the best seat at the dining table when I assumed the position. The sight of an authentic outhouse stirred neither any sentimental feelings in me nor any admiration for my people’s environmental consciousness. I preferred a flush toilet with a smooth porcelain seat an a newspaper on my lap as reading matter, not between my legs The paper with which the West wiped itself was softer than the paper with which the rest of he world blew it’s nose, although this was only a metaphorical comparison. The rest of the world would have been stunned at the luxurious idea of even using paper to blow one’s nose. Paper was for writing things like this confession, not for mopping up excretions. But those strange mysterious Westerners had exotic ways and wonders, symbolized in Kleenex and double-ply toilet paper.”

- The Sympathizer, VIet Thanh Nguyen