El Akkad’s One Day… is not at all a funny book, as you can imagine, but this part made me laugh OL:
But I can't bring myself to do it, to put on the tuxedo and pick at the canapés and smile and be nice, at all costs be nice. I can't bring myself to celebrate. I know there's likely going to be a particular politician there who, days earlier, glibly voted against even a symbolic UN resolution calling for a ceasefir and then went on social media to post a paean to the beauty of Shakespearean sonnets. I'm afraid if I run into him I might not be able to keep from sounding like the angry Arab man every Arab man is secretly believed to be.