Jacques Chirac's description of the Franco-American rapport as a seemingly endless acting out of tensions and rapprochements between frères ennemis provides a succinct, accurate summary of French and American personal and political behavior since the nineteenth century. Both nations have always been capable of finding something annoying or disappointing in the comportment of the other but, barring unforeseeable events, the two powers remain destined, or condemned, to be allies on the international scene, all the while eying their personal dealings with a degree of méfiance.

It is important to bear this simple truth in mind throughout the following analysis of the ways in which French and American fiction depict the often fraught encounters between the citizens of the two countries. France and the United States are frequently at odds but, perhaps despite themselves, they are always allies. Allies who rarely forego the occasion to look down on each other, but without ever seriously contemplating a breaking up of their alliance. Still, the somewhat confrontational national perceptions are striking and contribute to the “special” relationship that exists between the two countries and peoples.

The study of French and American attitudes toward each other is hardly new. To cite a selection of the more recent works, Jean-Philippe Mathy's Extrême-Occident (1993) attacks Franco-American tensions from a variety of perspectives, including literature, history, the social sciences, and even travel writing. In his French Resistance (2000), Mathy continues his examination of “Franco-American culture wars” through deft analyses of specific moments of Franco-American friction, such as the issue of “French Theory,” the Sokal Affair, and different national understandings of colonialism and postmodernism.