And his brand of straightforward dramatic irony — we see the delusions the characters don't — tends to put the reader (and the author) in an uncomfortably superior position; at his worst Saunders can come off as a little smug or complacent, like somebody with a bumper sticker reading "Mean People Stink".
He has written thrillers, horror and historical fiction, and followed a novel of postmodern irony with straightforward realist fiction.
Disco, he says, replaced the formless rock scene with "cocktails, dancing, conversation, exchange of ideas and points of view," and his apparent naïve irony is utterly straightforward.
It demands our sustained attention, teasing out the complexities, the incongruities and, as Mr. Freed's image of the Petersen House attests, the ironies of ostensibly straightforward circumstances.
Back then this was straightforward dialogue, received by the audience without much irony.
A straightforward storyteller, he gods up his subject without irony, detachment or recognition of the hyperbole that comes with so much positive testimony.
Although Mr. Johansen is a master of irony, he performs the songs as straightforward folk with a touch of rock, making the old narratives sound current.
Although Mr. Johansen is a master of irony, he sings the songs as straightforward folk with a touch of rock, making the old narratives sound current.
I really like how the show repurposes the ironies of ordinary life as a straightforward account of something much worse.
Soon after arriving at the Army training base in Kent, I discovered that I was functionally illiterate – meaning that I could not handle much more than straightforward questions and had no understanding of allusion or irony.
But if your relationship can stand some irony along with the sweetness, boxes of little licorice hearts, in straightforward black or tangy cherry, might do the trick.
