leslie115 's review for:

Any Human Heart by William Boyd

5.0

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I loved listening to this flawed, fictional Englishman document his rich, 20th-century life. This quote reminded me of POTUS 45 and why [b: Stoner|166997|Stoner|John Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320600716l/166997._SY75_.jpg|1559207] is more successful in Europe than in the U.S.:

[D]uring these years when I was truly on my uppers, I used occasionally to recall what Mr. Schmidt had screamed at me that morning in New York . . . LOSER! You English loser . . . I suppose he thought it was the most grievous insult he could hurl. But such a curse doesn't really have any effect on an English person—or a European—it seems to me. We know we're all going to lose in the end so it is deprived of any force as a slur. But not in the U.S.A. Perhaps this is the great difference between the two worlds, this concept of Loserdom. In the New World, it is the ultimate mark of shame—in the Old it prompts only a wry sympathy.