--- title: Suzy Hansen's "Notes on a Foreign Country" Review description: In 2007, the journalist moved from New York City to Istanbul, and began to understand the impact of America and her place in the world canonical: https://time.com/4904292/notes-on-a-foreign-country-suzy-hansen/ author: Karl Vick article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-17T11:11:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:02:06.801Z article:section: Ideas og:title: An American’s Tale of Policy and Progress og:description: Suzy Hansen's "Notes on a Foreign Country" beautifully takes on America and privilege og:url: https://time.com/4904292/notes-on-a-foreign-country-suzy-hansen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cf854c3183a7633/6988d9f77cdbac0056d59a03/notes-on-a-foreign-country.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: notes-on-a-foreign-country og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An American’s Tale of Policy and Progress twitter:description: Suzy Hansen's "Notes on a Foreign Country" beautifully takes on America and privilege twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cf854c3183a7633/6988d9f77cdbac0056d59a03/notes-on-a-foreign-country.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # An American’s Tale of Policy and Progress  by [Karl Vick](https://time.com/author/karl-vick/)  ## Karl Vick Editor at Large Aug 17, 2017 11:11 AM UTC   by [Karl Vick](https://time.com/author/karl-vick/)  ## Karl Vick Editor at Large Aug 17, 2017 11:11 AM UTC In 2007, at the age of 29, Suzy Hansen moved from New York City to Istanbul. The same city had provided refuge to [James Baldwin](http://time.com/4734783/james-baldwin-civil-rights-photos/), whose writing opened Hansen’s eyes to an essential truth to which she had been blissfully ignorant: that she was not just an American but a white American, a position so privileged, it afforded the luxury of blissful ignorance. [_Notes on a Foreign Country_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374280045/?tag=timecom-20) is Hansen’s ardent, often lovely attempt to take self-awareness overseas. It doesn’t come along peacefully. But then Baldwin wrote of people in intimate proximity, while Hansen tackles the sins of U.S. foreign policy. Her humans are separated by thousand of miles and opposing governments — Washington, and the ones it manipulates. The one easy thing here is Hansen’s company. In Dubai, “sky and the water melt into an aluminum-hued oblivion.” A Hilton “had the benevolent totalitarian aesthetic of the United Nations.” A nurse speaks “in a tone that makes you want to put your head on her shoulder.” If Noam Chomsky could write like this, Hansen’s work would already be done. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4904292/notes-on-a-foreign-country-suzy-hansen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4904292/notes-on-a-foreign-country-suzy-hansen/"},"headline":"An American’s Tale of Policy and Progress","datePublished":"2017-08-17T11:11:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:02:06.801Z","description":"Suzy Hansen's \"Notes on a Foreign Country\" beautifully takes on America and privilege","url":"https://time.com/4904292/notes-on-a-foreign-country-suzy-hansen/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cf854c3183a7633/6988d9f77cdbac0056d59a03/notes-on-a-foreign-country.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Karl Vick","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/karl-vick/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cf854c3183a7633/6988d9f77cdbac0056d59a03/notes-on-a-foreign-country.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"notes-on-a-foreign-country","caption":"notes-on-a-foreign-country","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4904292/notes-on-a-foreign-country-suzy-hansen/","name":"An American’s Tale of Policy and Progress"}}]}] ```