piquant

It all plays like a modern riff on Roald Dahl, with that writer’s wit and penchant for the piquant cruelty of kids and adults alike, filtered through Elliot’s more wistful if equally whimsical sensibility.

You open the door and get hit with that familiar, piquant draft of deli indulgence, and customers happily volunteer to tell you about their first visits, decades ago, with parents or grandparents.

Add some spice to that sweating glass of ice tea and drink deeply of these piquant novels.

A dozen acrylic and graphite drawings of birds by Sutapa Biswas, accompanied by her video “Magnesium Bird,” make for a piquant counterweight.

“Pisachi” alternates between hushed, singing harmonics and piquant rhythms painted in impassioned tremolos and spiky pizzicatos.