The Observer, in short

Lead article Carmen Musat comments on the currency of C. Banu’s volume of aphorisms, Gradina lui Glaucon sau Manualul bunului politician (Glaucon’s Garden or the Good Politician’s Manual, Bucharest: 1937, Fundatia pentru Literatura si Arta ‘Regele Carol II’). Debate Cosmin Nasui goes on discussing young Romanian artists’ sources of inspiration with Monica Morariu, Vlad Nanca, Ioana Nemes, Ovidiu Panighiant, Alexandru Radvan, Mircea Suciu, Raluca Ungureanu, Simona Vilau, and Ciprian Voicu. Politics Ciprian Ciucu looks at the consequences of increasing retirement pensions. Bedros Horasangian writes that the Ministry of Justice’s CNSAS wing is bogged down among too many interests—to the detriment of post-Communist anti-Communism. In memoriam Nicolai Buga, professor and priest, reviews the life of the late Patriarch Teoctist, leader of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Book reviews Bogdan-Alexandru Stanescu analyses D.B.C. Pierre’s Tap ispititor (Tempting Goat, Bucharest: Humanitas, 2005), a novel about a young genius, in the tradition of J.D. Salinger. Angelo Mitchievici reads Antonio Patras’ Ibraileanu. Catre o teorie a personalitatii (Ibraileanu: Towards a Theory of Personality, Bucharest: Cartea romaneasca, 2007). Ibraileanu was a major interwar literary critic. Ioana Paverman discusses Giovanni Sartori’s Ce facem cu strainii ? Pluralism vs. Multiculturalism – eseu despre societatea multietnica (What to Do with […]