The Shadow of the Sun, by Ryszard Kapuścińksi, is a masterpiece by one of Africa's most insightful observers with Africans always taking centre stage.

A wonderful, insightful observer is Mike, of the eccentricities and peccadilloes of the human species, and the best storyteller you'd ever want to meet.

I can't think of another playwright who's a keener, more insightful observer of Australian suburban life, let alone one who can document it so redolently.

But as S. Frederick Starr, president of Oberlin College and an insightful observer of Soviet affairs, has pointed out, Russia does have a fragile, liberal countertradition dating back to the early 18th century, when Peter the Great exposed young Russians to Western ideas.

And then, again following Mahler but with dazzling leaps of his own, Mr. Botstein repositions Mahler yet again, as a dialectically critical, psychologically insightful observer of society in the manner of Flaubert, Fontane and James.

At Tocqueville, a restaurant near Union Square named for the insightful French observer of the fledgling United States, it's no contest.

Before much experimental evidence had been collected, the utility of testing was already apparent to some insightful observers.

An insightful observer of the game, he spent three series talking about the Padres' pitchers, but in each daily mass interview with reporters he also talked about his desire to have a meaningful front-office job.