Its research into the slippery question of how poor countries can grow prosperous is always more comprehensive, and sometimes more brilliant, than anything else on offer.
It was also up against JG Farrell's Troubles, a book so brilliant that anything set against it has to lose some lustre).
'It's a real pain getting money in and out of there; the banking system isn't exactly brilliant, and anything you post tends to get opened.
In the first place the dramatic coups which bring the curtain down on the first three acts are as brilliant as anything in later Puccini.
The scenes look as brilliant as anything I've seen on a video disc -- and better than any video of a color movie that was shot 35 to 40 years ago.
It is full of non-stop, roaring talk that is as brilliant as anything in the celebrated "ear" novels of the past decade — those novels (Elmore Leonard, Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie) constructed largely out of dialogue and designed to be heard, not merely read.
You could say that light relief is provided by some dozen animated television commercials that the Quays call "deals with the devil," since they are done to finance more serious efforts, but they are as brilliant as anything they have done.
Among the outstanding talents who create worlds seemingly out of thin air, the set and costume designer Machine Dazzle makes work that's as close to brilliant as anything else out there; he's a surrealist who's not interested in upstaging the reality of the performers.
Published in 2009, after his team won the Olympics bid but well before the Games had sealed his reputation as a genius, The Winning Mind, though ostensibly an inspirational business text abounding in the relevant banalities, is largely an explanation of why Lord Coe's particular skills as a champion athlete and senior Tory would make him utterly brilliant at anything.
As a career move, it's as brilliant as anything Kid Rock has done yet.
