OE

The first blank describes, Martin Amis’s “wit.” The second sentence describes Amis’s novels as full of sharp “jibes,” or insulting remarks; “scintillating,” which means clever or amusing, describes such an author’s wit quite well. “Sartorial” (relating to style of dress) and “feckless” (incompetent or good-for-nothing) are great GRE words, but don’t describe a clever author’s wit. The second sentence says that because of the author’s wit, descriptions of sad and horrible scenes “often bring a _________ smile to the reader’s lips.” Why would a reader smile when reading about something awful? The smile must be ironic, because of the contrast between the tragic scene and the clever writing. The word that fits best is “wry,” which can mean ironic. A “disapproving” smile doesn’t make sense, and there is no need for a reader to be “discreet” or inconspicuous while reading a disturbing section of a book; no one else knows what the reader is smiling about anyway