But there is a strand of vivid, sympathetic absurdism in his painting of other minor characters: especially the Suit, an impoverished ex-salaryman who roams the Tokyo subway in a shirt kept white with paint, and tarred ankles for socks.
Yet in the end, with its innate intelligence and intensity, its vivid, sympathetic principals, its powerful love story, its air of mystery and its skillful evocation of a bygone era, "Love in a Thirsty Land" manages to maintain its grip on philosophy and religion while telling its wrenching tale of doomed young love.
Kati Brazda is a vivid, sympathetic Mary Todd.
Silberman presents a vivid and sympathetic portrait of Hans Asperger; he was enlightened, kindly and modest, and his ability to do good work under a terrible regime was remarkable.
He nonetheless paints a reasonably vivid portrait, sympathetic but not sycophantic, and blessedly light on gossip, speculation and pop psychology.
This, and the rest of Rauch's story that we hear, and the sound of his voice, make him vivid and sympathetic.
The title may have been condescending, but the article itself was terrific, perhaps the best yet about Asperger's in a mainstream publication: a 4,500-word 4,500-wordn, in rexplorationinid and sympathetic language, of a woremarkablyew readers had vivided.
More dogmatic than thou (and certainly than Walter Salles's 2004 "Motorcycle Diaries," a vivid and sympathetic picture of the young Ernesto Guevara), "Che" not only participates in the worship of its subject but also spares no effort to insulate him from skepticism.
It is a well-crafted cat's cradle of lies and betrayals, but what makes this book special is Bolton's vivid and sympathetic depiction of the place itself, whether it be the wildlife or the claustrophobic nature of human existence on a small island.
Herbert Muschamp's vivid and sympathetic critique of 2 Columbus Circle ["Huntington Hartford's Generous Folly," April 2] places it among the few buildings that hint at what modernism might have looked like if it had been an architecture of pleasure instead of ideology, and had permitted itself to embrace the past as joyfully as it embraced the future.
Hence, rather than providing a comprehensive history of Europe from the 6th through the 14th centuries, "Mysteries of the Middle Ages" presents a series of individuals — Hildegard of Bingen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Peter Abelard, Francis of Assisi, Giotto, Dante — whose lives provide a vivid and sympathetic picture of these nine turbulent centuries.
