It's good to find this most original book in print again this year.
Levi, a young Italian, academically a chemist, could not, as a Jew
in Fascist Italy, use his degree, though summa cum laude, for work.
He joined the Resistance, was betrayed, and spent from 1943 to the
war's end in Auschwitz. The full account, which must be read, is in
his If This Is A Man, one of the great works of the twentieth
century. Levi had found that writing had something in common with
chemistry - the need for exactness, daring and discovery, the
creating of something new and alive out of sullen, even noxious
material. But The Periodic Table, with its deceptive lightness,
gives little of the camp. Each of the 21 elements prompts an
episode, usually in Levi's life. Never mind the order - I recommend
starting with Iron. It gives not only the young Levi's passion for
chemistry, but one of the most brilliant of his verbal portraits,
here of Sandro, a fellow student. Read it, pass onwards, or take in
Cerium, a rare camp piece. Tormented by hunger, Levi and his close
friend Alberto devise a means of briefly securing a daily piece of
bread. Will it keep them alive until the Russians come? Stranger
still is 'Vanadium'. Some 20 years later, in business letters from
a German firm, Levi recognizes the name and writing of his one-time
Nazi camp overseer. Should he (outside business) make contact? He
does - letters are exchanged. Then... Read one work by Levi and you
will search for more. Add to your list Moments of Reprieve as well
as If This is a Man Review by Naomi Lewis (Kirkus UK)
A chemist by training, Primo Levi became one of the supreme witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In these haunting reflections inspired by the elements of the periodic table, he ranges from young love to political savagery; from the inert gas argon - and 'inert' relatives like the uncle who stayed in bed for twenty-two years - to life-giving carbon. 'Iron' honours the mountain-climbing resistance hero who put iron in Levi's student soul, 'Cerium' recalls the improvised cigarette lighters which saved his life in Auschwitz, while 'Vanadium' describes an eerie post-war correspondence with the man who had been his 'boss' there. All are written with characteristically understated eloquence and shot through with deep humanity.
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