literature

N.3/2000

Gli ultimi sono gli ultimi

Aldo Onorati
Armando Editore pp. 124 L. 16.000

First published in the early Sixties, this book tells the story of a teacher - the author itself - working in an orphanage (near Rome) which in the title is called "lager". Thirt.y years ago the book schocked the pubblic opinion and then, was translated in several languages.
At present we hope that times have really changed; unfortunately the Italian debate on school and pedagogy is still rethorical and not inspired by direct knowledge of the problem

Una vita da ragazzo.
Storia di una donna
Kim Chernin
Positive Press pp. 184 L. 26.000

Positive Press' books cover a wide range of subjects, from natural medicine to a certain kind of novels; what they have in common is a certain "philosophy of wellbeing", which can be considered a part of "new age" culture.
The novel by Kim Chernin - American psychoanalyst, writer and feminist - tells the story of a woman, bride and mother, whose life suddenly changes. It is also the story of a "particular love", which allows her to discover new and unexpected aspects of the existence, to make different choices, to abandon moral values considered "normal" by most of people.

Malati di vita.
L'uomo contemporaneo,
la malattia e la morte
Mariella Lombardi Ricci
Istituto Siciliano di Bioetica pp. 155 L.30.000

Our journals have been dealing with bioethics for many years, when it was considered an useless matter. Nowadays the evolution of medical science turned bioethics in a discipline of primary importance.
The book is addressed - as pointed out by the author in her introduction - non tonly to patients and their families, physicinas and nurse, but to each human being as involved in the human questions on disease and death.
Mariella Lombardi Ricci - young theologian learning in some Italian universities - particularly underlines the relation doctor-patient, speaks of the thin border between life and death in terminally-ill patients and of anthropological aspects of disease.
The author's point of wiew is catholic but we can ensure readers that its arguments may often be shared even by laymen.