Michael's writing is characterized by its humor, painful irony, empathy and tolerance.

There was nothing for him but a painful irony in their raucous clamour.

The painful ironies of these two objectifications come across very well.

It was a painful irony: foreign surgeons were always going to be inexperienced, but no one else had so much time on their hands.

But he will not be in St. Petersburg to witness the event, perhaps the most painful irony of this affair.

And there is no more painful irony to contemplate in all the events of his life than the way his own "cursed" family evolved.

That sounds like an excruciatingly painful irony to me.

He is more comfortable with painful ironies than occasional points of light.

That to me is the painful irony of what is happening.

There is painful irony here for Kelly and his wife, Jill.