The story might have been set in Glasgow or Liverpool, other Victorian centres of industrialisation, but Patterson captures the deadpan rhythms and acerbity of Belfast dialogue.
Paul Krugman, the most recent Nobel laureate for economics, puts it with characteristic acerbity: the huge, strait-laced, bureaucratic corporations that ruled the roost before the dotcoms were, he says, like "socialism without the justice".
The widespread disillusionment in the state, increased by Mr Gramm's acerbity, casts a shadow on the agreement's future.Mr Massieu's future looks even bleaker.
On the opposite shore, Clare Boylan's unsentimental acerbity demonstrates that the new share-your-pain bathos of post-Diana Britain has failed to melt its Irish neighbours into goo.In her first collection since her celebrated "The Safety of Objects" (1990), Ms Homes captures the stark absurdity and befuddlement of the American suburbs.
Discharged from Vanity Fair in 1920 for the acerbity of her drama reviews, she became a freelance writer.
While this radical critique lost some acerbity after 1980, it left an impression, especially on the liberal intelligentsia.
Raine, for example, is a critic of almost legendary acerbity.
Albanians, the Welsh, animal rights activists and Germans have all been outraged by the wit, acerbity and bile pouring from A A Gill's keyboard.
Sparks apply their typically serio-comic sensibility to "Give Me Something", adding an edge of acerbity to her attempt to ward off alienation, while her Japanese-American friends Cibo Matto create the most feminine piece here in "Yes, I'm Your Angel", their delicate soundscaping skills allowing the lightness of spirit in Yoko's voice to shine through.
His mercy contrasted sharply with Khosrow's acerbity and probably hastened his victory in Persia.
Moody's kinetic prose calls to mind Bruce Wagner's kaleidoscopic Hollywood novels, but it lacks Wagner's acerbity and airy humor.
