1.   And few in this cynical age are likely to forgive a work that is judged unsophisticated.

2.   As fiction goes, the story might not sell as well today as it did in a less cynical age.

3.   Even in this cynical age, people are hungry to believe.

4.   Gideon is a hero for an age so cynical about doctors that it needs to believe in heroic healers more than ever.

5.   Indeed, the Dead personified hope in a cynical age.

6.   The virus proves that even in our cynical age, many people scan their e-mail expecting love notes.

7.   This is a cynical age, so one has to be on the lookout for small signs of affirmation.

8.   What polls show most clearly, Phillips says, is that Americans are desperately searching for hope in an increasingly cynical age.