The Personalism of Edith Stein

Download The Personalism of Edith Stein PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : CUA Press
ISBN 13 : 0813237475
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (132 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Personalism of Edith Stein by : Robert McNamara

Download or read book The Personalism of Edith Stein written by Robert McNamara and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edith Stein's life and thought intersect with many important movements of life and thought in the twentieth century. Through her life and eventual martyrdom, she gave witness to the primacy of truth and faith in the face of political totalitarianism, and in her philosophical works, she contributed to a synthesis of phenomenological thought with the thought of Aquinas, while also progressively advancing a compelling form of philosophical personalism. As a result, Stein represents one of the most important Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century and is a figure of growing fascination and devotion among believers and nonbelievers alike. The Personalism of Edith Stein is an investigation of Stein's mature philosophical anthropology, exploring her engagement with the thought of Aquinas and Thomism while maintaining the phenomenological mode of investigation. Through a careful examination of Stein's later works under the themes of human nature, the human individual, and the human being's relation to God, McNamara shows that Stein's mature personalism is considerably expanded and substantiated by her assimilation of key anthropological and metaphysical teachings of Aquinas and Thomism, and, conversely, that Stein significantly develops and deepens these same teachings through a phenomenological reconsideration of each from a personalist perspective. As a whole, the study reveals the profound accord between Stein's mature thought and the received teachings of Aquinas, while yet carefully attending to the remaining differences between them. Ultimately, the author proposes that Stein imbues the teachings of Aquinas with a fundamental personalization such that her mature anthropology can be understood as a Thomistically informed personalism that represents a significant, original contribution to the anthropological dimension of the philosophia perennis.

Edith Stein

Download Edith Stein PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742559530
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (595 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Edith Stein by : Alasdair C. MacIntyre

Download or read book Edith Stein written by Alasdair C. MacIntyre and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2007 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edith Stein lived an unconventional life. Born into a devout Jewish family, she drifted into atheism in her mid teens, took up the study of philosophy, studied with Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, became a pioneer in the women's movement in Germany, a military nurse in World War I, converted from atheism to Catholic Christianity, became a Carmelite nun, was murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, and canonized by Pope John Paul II. Renowned philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre here presents a fascinating account of Edith Stein's formative development as a philosopher. To accomplish this, he offers a concise survey of her context, German philosophy in the first decades of the twentieth century. His treatment of Stein demonstrates how philosophy can form a person and not simply be an academic formulation in the abstract. MacIntyre probes the phenomenon of conversion in Stein as well as contemporaries Franz Rosenzweig, and Georg Luckas. His clear and concise account of Stein's formation in the context of her mentors and colleagues reveals the crucial questions and insights that her writings offer to those who study Husserl, Heidegger or the Thomism of the 1920's and 30's. Written with a clarity that reaches beyond an academic audience, this book will reward careful study by anyone interested in Edith Stein as thinker, pioneer and saint.

The Transposition of Edith Stein

Download The Transposition of Edith Stein PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780988656307
Total Pages : 142 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (563 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Transposition of Edith Stein by : John C. Wilhelmsson

Download or read book The Transposition of Edith Stein written by John C. Wilhelmsson and published by . This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before she was a saint she was a fine philosopher. Yet because she was a woman her contributions were ignored. This book asks the question: "Did Edith Stein make any important contributions to philosophy and, if so, what are the implications of them for us today?" It begins with a biography of Stein up until the acceptance of her doctoral dissertation "On the Problem of Empathy" in 1916. It then examines the phenomenology of Stein and, in exciting new research, demonstrates her contributions to 20th century philosophy as a whole. Finally, it looks at the feminist thought of Stein and its connection to "The Theology of the Body" of Pope John Paul II. Based upon an award winning thesis, here is a book that goes beyond looking at Stein's thought as a curiosity and instead makes a strong argument for her contributions to philosophy, feminism and "The Theology of the Body."

Self-Portrait In Letters, 1916-1942 (The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 5)

Download Self-Portrait In Letters, 1916-1942 (The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 5) PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : ICS Publications
ISBN 13 : 1939272432
Total Pages : 497 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (392 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Self-Portrait In Letters, 1916-1942 (The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 5) by : Edith Stein

Download or read book Self-Portrait In Letters, 1916-1942 (The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 5) written by Edith Stein and published by ICS Publications. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edith Stein comes alive through these warm, totally attentive letters. She joins a deeply sensitive heart with her keen intelligence, revealing herself to be a wise mentor and a caring friend available to anyone who approached her. Here we learn what was truly important to her: the total well-being of those who treasured her letters enough to preserve them even while suffering the havoc of war and oppression. This volume offers the first English translation of the majority of her surviving letters, with 4 photos and a fully linked index of recipients.

The Philosophy of Edith Stein

Download The Philosophy of Edith Stein PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Duquesne
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Philosophy of Edith Stein by : Antonio Calcagno

Download or read book The Philosophy of Edith Stein written by Antonio Calcagno and published by Duquesne. This book was released on 2007 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most philosophers, the work of Edith Stein continues to be eclipsed and relegated to obscurity. This work presents an excellent cross-section of Stein's writings and demonstrates the timeliness and relevance of her ideas for contemporary philosophical scholarship. Antonio Calcagno covers most of Edith Stein's philosophical life, from her early work with Husserl to her later encounters with medieval Christian thought, as well as a critical and analytical reading of major Steinian texts. Stein was an original thinker who challenged not only the direction in which Husserlian phenomenology was progressing but also sought to bring to philosophical light the relevance of certain key questions, including the meaning of what it is to be human, the relevance of metaphysics to science, and fundamental questions about the nature of God. Working to correct the perception that Stein is either an "unfaithful and distorting" phenomenologist or a pious Catholic mystic, Calcagno presents important work that has been neglected by both secular and religious scholars. The essays are not merely expository, but discuss the philosophical questions raised by Stein's work from a contemporary perspective, using Stein's original German texts. In its attention to the breadth and depth of Stein's philosophy from its initial development to its more mature form, The Philosophy of Edith Stein offers a new understanding of an individual who left behind an incredible philosophical and literary legacy worthy of scholarly attention. The book will be of interest not only to Stein scholars, but to feminists, phenomenologists, and Heideggerians.

Organization Studies and Posthumanism

Download Organization Studies and Posthumanism PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1040011721
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Organization Studies and Posthumanism by : François-Xavier de Vaujany

Download or read book Organization Studies and Posthumanism written by François-Xavier de Vaujany and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-05 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims at exploring the reception of critical posthumanist conversations in the context of Management and Organization Studies. It constitutes an invitation to de-center the human subject and thus an invitation to the ongoing deconstruction of humanism. The project is not to deny humans but to position them in relation to other nonhumans, more-than-humans, the non-living world, and all the “missing masses” from organizational inquiry. What is under critique is humanism’s anthropocentrism, essentialism, exceptionalism, and speciesism in the context of the Anthropocene and the contemporary crisis the world experiences. From climate change to the loss of sense at work, to the new geopolitical crisis, to the unknown effects of the diffusion of AI, all these powerful forces have implications for organizations and organizing. A re-imagination of concepts, theories, and methods is needed in organization studies to cope with the challenge of a more-than-human world.

Edith Stein: Women, Social-Political Philosophy, Theology, Metaphysics and Public History

Download Edith Stein: Women, Social-Political Philosophy, Theology, Metaphysics and Public History PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319211242
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (192 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Edith Stein: Women, Social-Political Philosophy, Theology, Metaphysics and Public History by : Antonio Calcagno

Download or read book Edith Stein: Women, Social-Political Philosophy, Theology, Metaphysics and Public History written by Antonio Calcagno and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-11 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the work and thought of Edith Stein (1891–1942). It discusses in detail, and from new perspectives, the traditional areas of her thinking, including her ideas about women/feminism, theology, and metaphysics. In addition, it introduces readers to new and/or understudied areas of her thought, including her views on history, and her social and political philosophy. The guiding thread that connects all the essays in this book is the emphasis on new approaches and novel applications of her philosophy. The contributions both extend the interdisciplinary implications of Stein’s thinking for our contemporary world and apply her insights to questions of theatre, public history and biographical representation, education, politics, autism, theological debates, feminism, sexuality studies and literature. The volume brings together for the first time leading scholars in five language-groups, including English, German, Italian, French and Spanish-speaking authors, thereby reflecting an international and cosmopolitan approach to Stein studies.

On the Ethical Philosophy of Edith Stein

Download On the Ethical Philosophy of Edith Stein PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1666923672
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (669 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis On the Ethical Philosophy of Edith Stein by : William E. Tullius

Download or read book On the Ethical Philosophy of Edith Stein written by William E. Tullius and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-09-03 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although she never penned a text dedicated exclusively to ethics, Edith Stein’s work encompasses an implicit, but self-consciously developed, moral philosophy not yet sufficiently developed in the current English-language literature. However, comparison of Stein’s anthropological and metaphysical theories against the ethical philosophy of other early phenomenological thinkers, such as Max Scheler and Edmund Husserl, reveals lines of moral theory woven throughout her texts. In On the Ethical Philosophy of Edith Stein: Outlines of Morality, William E. Tullius endeavors to present a systematic account of Stein’s moral thought as it takes shape in conversation with neo-scholasticism and develops across her corpus in conversation with her philosophical anthropology, axiological theory, and metaphysics. The ethics which emerge from these sources is oriented around the moral project of the development of personality through the unfolding of one’s personal core and which entails a call to the development of an ethical community reflective of and oriented by its responsiveness to the highest values and to the communal destiny of all humanity in God

Wilhelm Dilthey: Selected Works, Volume III

Download Wilhelm Dilthey: Selected Works, Volume III PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069114933X
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Wilhelm Dilthey: Selected Works, Volume III by : Wilhelm Dilthey

Download or read book Wilhelm Dilthey: Selected Works, Volume III written by Wilhelm Dilthey and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-10 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides Dilthey's most mature and best formulation of his Critique of Historical Reason. It begins with three "Studies Toward the Foundation of the Human Sciences," in which Dilthey refashions Husserlian concepts to describe the basic structures of consciousness relevant to historical understanding. The volume next presents the major 1910 work The Formation of the Historical World in the Human Sciences. Here Dilthey considers the degree to which carriers of history--individuals, cultures, institutions, and communities--can be articulated as productive systems capable of generating value and meaning and of realizing purposes. Hegel's idea of objective spirit is reconceived in a more empirical form to designate the medium of commonality in which historical beings are immersed. Any universal claims about history need to be framed within the specific productive systems analyzed by the various human sciences. Dilthey's drafts for the Continuation of the Formation contain extensive discussions of the categories most important for our knowledge of historical life: meaning, value, purpose, time, and development. He also examines the contributions of autobiography to historical understanding and of biography to scientific history. The finest summary of Dilthey's views on hermeneutics can be found in "The Understanding of Other Persons and Their Manifestations of Life." Here, Dilthey differentiates understanding relative to three kinds of manifestations of life. After giving his analysis of elementary understanding, he examines the role of induction in higher understanding and interpretation, and the relevance of transposition and re-experiencing for grasping individuality.

Child-Parent Research Reimagined

Download Child-Parent Research Reimagined PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004421726
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Child-Parent Research Reimagined by :

Download or read book Child-Parent Research Reimagined written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-05-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Child-Parent Research Reimagined challenges the field to explore the meaning making experiences and the methodological and ethical challenges that come to the fore when researchers engage in research with their child, grandchild, or other relative. As scholars in and beyond the field of education grapple with ways that youth make meaning with digital and nondigital resources and practices, this edited volume offers insights into nuanced learning that is highly contextualized and textured while also (re)initiating important methodological and epistemological conversations about research that seeks to flatten traditional hierarchies, honor youth voices, and co-investigate facets of youth meaning making. Contributors are (in alphabetical order): Charlotte Abrams, Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Kathleen M. Alley, Bill Cope, Mary Kalantzis, Molly Kurpis, Linda Laidlaw, Guy Merchant, Daniel Ness, Eric Ness, "E." O’Keefe, Joanne O’Mara, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Sarah Prestridge, Lourdes M. Rivera, Dahlia Rivera-Larkin, Nora Rivera-Larkin, Alaina Roach O’Keefe, Mary Beth Schaefer, Cassandra R. Skrobot, and Bogum Yoon.

Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World

Download Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110698889
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World by : Anna Bortolan

Download or read book Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and the Social World written by Anna Bortolan and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-02-07 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume gathers together over twenty contributions that emerged from a conference held in in honour of Dermot Moran on the occasion of his retirement from University College Dublin. The book explores the contribution of phenomenology to empathy, intersubjectivity, affectivity, and the constitution of the cultural and social world, from both a historical and an applied philosophical perspective. Theoretical and methodological differences in approach notwithstanding, phenomenologists have converged in the recognition that self and others are fundamentally related, and have provided fine-grained accounts of the origin, forms, and implications of such relationship. The volume critically reconstructs and further develops central aspects of this body of research within a pluralistic framework. It offers a renewed investigation of the work of classical phenomenologists like Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty, as well as an original application of phenomenological concepts and theories to contemporary discussions on intentionality, culture, emotions, and morality. The book provides insights for scholars in phenomenological philosophy as well as in philosophy of mind and interpersonal and social experience.

Strangers in This World

Download Strangers in This World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Augsburg Fortress Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1451472978
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (514 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Strangers in This World by : Hussam S. Timani

Download or read book Strangers in This World written by Hussam S. Timani and published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers. This book was released on 2015 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immigration is one of the most hotly debated topics today. But, the question involves more than politics and emotion; it includes such critical issues as law, justice, human rights, human dignity, and freedom. Strangers in This World is a collection that brings together an international consortium of scholars to reflect on the religious, political, anthropological, and social realities of immigration through the prism of the historical and theological resources, insights, and practices across an array of religious traditions. The volume, reflecting the diversity of religious cultures, is nevertheless unified in arguing that immigration is an important aspect of the major religions and is found at their core. The contributors unfold this important dimension of the religious traditions and explore the ways that the theme of immigration connects to vital points of theological reflection and practice in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Native American religious traditions. At root, the volume is about our collective journey together as immigrant peoples who have stories and settlements to share, as well as challenges and struggles to overcome, that may be faced through the resources our many faiths offer.

Heidegger's Eschatology

Download Heidegger's Eschatology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191501875
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Heidegger's Eschatology by : Judith Wolfe

Download or read book Heidegger's Eschatology written by Judith Wolfe and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heidegger's Eschatology is a ground-breaking account of Heidegger's early engagement with theology, from his beginnings as an anti-Modernist Catholic to his turn towards an undogmatic Protestantism and finally to a resolutely a-theistic philosophical method. The book centres on Heidegger's developing commitment to an eschatological vision, derived from theological sources but reshaped into a central resource for the development of an atheistic phenomenological account of human existence. This vision originated in Heidegger's attempt, in the late 1910s, to formulate a phenomenology of religious life that would take seriously the inherent temporality of human existence. In this endeavour, Heidegger turned to two trends in Protestant scholarship: the discovery of eschatology as a central preoccupation of the Early Church by A. Schweitzer and the 'History of Doctrine' School, and the 'existential' eschatology of Karl Barth and Eduard Thurneysen, indebted to Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and Franz Overbeck. His synthesis of such trends within a phenomenological framework (elaborated primarily via readings of Paul and Augustine in his lecture courses of 1921-2) led Heidegger to postulate an existential sense of eschatological unrest as the central characteristic of authentic Christian existence. His description of this expectant restlessness, however, was now inescapably at odds with its Christian sources, since Heidegger's commitment to a phenomenological description of the human situation led him to abstract the 'existential' experience of expectation from its traditional object: the 'blessed hope' for the Kingdom of God. Christian hope thus for Heidegger no longer constitutes, but rather negates 'eschatological' unrest, because such hope projects an end to that unrest, and thus to authentic existence itself. Against the Christian vision, Heidegger therefore develops a systematic 'eschatology without eschaton', paradigmatically expressed as 'being-unto-death'. Judith Wolfe tells the story of his re-conception of eschatology, using a wealth of primary and newly available original-language sources, and offering in-depth analysis of Heidegger's relationship to theological tradition and the theology of his time.

The Science of the Cross

Download The Science of the Cross PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : ICS Publications
ISBN 13 : 0935216944
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (352 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Science of the Cross by : Saint Edith Stein

Download or read book The Science of the Cross written by Saint Edith Stein and published by ICS Publications. This book was released on 2002-03-10 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To help celebrate the fourth centenary of the birth of St. John of the Cross in 1542, Edith Stein received the task of preparing a study of his writings. She uses her skill as a philosopher to enter into an illuminating reflection on the difference between the two symbols of cross and night. Pointing out how entering the night is synonymous with carrying the cross, she provides a condensed presentation of John's thought on the active and passive nights, as discussed in The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night. All of this leads Edith to speak of the glory of resurrection that the soul shares, through a unitive contemplation described chiefly in The Living Flame of Love. In the summer of 1942, the Nazis without warrant took Edith away. The nuns found the manuscript of this profound study lying open in her room.

Encyclical Letter, Fides Et Ratio, of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II

Download Encyclical Letter, Fides Et Ratio, of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : USCCB Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9781574553024
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Encyclical Letter, Fides Et Ratio, of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II by : Catholic Church. Pope (1978-2005 : John Paul II)

Download or read book Encyclical Letter, Fides Et Ratio, of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II written by Catholic Church. Pope (1978-2005 : John Paul II) and published by USCCB Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Interpreting Dilthey

Download Interpreting Dilthey PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107132991
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Interpreting Dilthey by : Eric S. Nelson

Download or read book Interpreting Dilthey written by Eric S. Nelson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-25 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines Dilthey's hermeneutics, aesthetics, practical philosophy, and philosophy of history, showing how his work remains relevant for philosophers today.

The Smash-Up

Download The Smash-Up PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0593229665
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (932 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Smash-Up by : Ali Benjamin

Download or read book The Smash-Up written by Ali Benjamin and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Smart, sublime, and wickedly clever, The Smash-Up captures—then transcends—our current polarized moment “An exhilarating ride . . . hilarious . . . a modern and energetic story about a marriage on the skids.”—The New York Times Ethan has always been one of the good guys, and for years, nobody has appreciated this fact more than his wife, Zo. Until now. Jolted into activism by the 2016 election, Zo’s transformed their home into the headquarters for the local resistance, turning their comfortable decades-long marriage inside-out. Meanwhile, their boisterous daughter, Alex, grows wilder by the day. Ethan’s former business partner needs help saving the media company they’d co-founded. Financial disaster looms. Enter a breezy, blue-haired millennial making her way through the gig economy. Suddenly Ethan faces a choice unlike any he’s ever had to make. Unfolding over fivet urbulent days in 2018, The Smash-Up wrestles shrewdly with some of the biggest questions of our time: What, exactly, does it mean to be a good guy? What will it take for men to break the “bro code”? How does the world respond when a woman demands more? Can we ever understand another's experiences… and what are the consequences of failing to try? Moving, funny, and cathartic, this portrait of a marriage—and a nation—under strain is, ultimately, a magic trick of empathy, one that will make you laugh and squirm until its final, breathless pages.