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Title: The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi, Raymond Rosenthal, Erroll McDonald ISBN: 067972186X Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Rating: 5
Summary: How should we remember the Holocaust?
Comment: Levi was an Italian Jew who survived the Holocaust despite incarceration in Auschwitz. THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED is his final book, and it is not so much about the events of the Holocaust themselves as it is about how we have come to remember and understand the Holocaust, the most horrific crime in human history, the author persuasively argues. Levi's book exposes the pitfalls of human memory, exploring the nature of history, asking how we might honestly represent to posterity crimes that are literally unspeakable. By taking a modest but crucial step back from the actual crimes, Levi holds up for his reader's examination both the need for and the limits on our already somewhat distanced historical perspective on the Holocaust. Levi was worried about the myths and metaphors that had already attached themselves to the Holocaust within his lifetime, stylized intellectual ivy already obscuring the ruined walls of recent history. THE DROWNED AND THE SAVED attempts to clear away this overgowth, to preserve the ruin as starkly, as nakedly, as might still be possible
Rating: 5
Summary: Haunting and troubling
Comment: Levi's final account of his year at Auschwitz is concise, to-the-point, and absolutely fascinating. Words simply cannot do it justice; even four decades after the camps were "liberated," Levi's experience during the war remains for him (and to us) an exposed nerve. While Levi is unremitting in his condemnation of the Nazis and those Germans who stood silently by as unthinkable atrocitites were committed in their backyards, this book is evidence of a mind that, up until the very end, was still probing, still trying to understand, still offering up meaningful and timely questions which every human being--regardless of age or nationality or religion--should seriously ponder. The most striking aspect of this short narrative is its utter sincerity--Levi does not reach for hyperbole (though it's hard to exaggerate the inhumanity of the concentration camps), nor does he meditate at length on abstruse philosophy; to the contrary, he is always painfully, even brutally, honest and straightforward. His death was a great tragedy, but his written legacy is an even greater triumph; The Drowned and the Saved should be required reading for all.
Rating: 4
Summary: Thoughtful, intelligent, meaningful, and universal.
Comment: "The Drowned and the Saved" is the final book of Primo Levi (1919-1987), a Jewish-Italian chemist who survived the death camp of Auschwitz, and turned to authorship in his later years. This book is a group of a half-dozen related essays, each exploring a specific aspect of Levi's view of the Holocaust's causes and effects.
He begins with the concept of "good faith", wondering whether believing a lie excuses it. He notes that oppressors lie to save themselves from believing they are evil, and victims lie to save themselves from believing they suffer. He explores the moral zone between black and white, noting that anybody can be a tough killer or a foolish victim: we are all tyrants and victims in our own way.
He examines survivor's guilt, and reflects on the roles of luck versus blessing in life, and discusses the ways humans need communication to survive, including the way victims bend language to disguise their intentions, and tyrants twist it to cause confusion among their victims.
He tries to distinguish between rationalized evil and collective madness. He believes the spirit and mind can be injured just as the body can, and wonders how a person's perspective plays a role in their survival and psychological health. He describes the various stereotypes people hold when they imagine the stories of those who lived through WWII, e.g., the romantic hero, the evil Nazi, the prisoner who always plots escape, and so on, but explains why they are rough and inaccurate.
Each chapter is like a conversation with an intelligent and qualified author. It is thoughtful, and a pleasure to read. It reflects on psychological and historical themes which are important not only to our understanding of the Holocaust, but also more generally human nature. (It appears to be a rumination on subjects discussed in his other books, collected and summarized briefly here.) It is for this reason that the book is successful. It considers the Holocaust in particular, but its themes are actually deeper and more universal.
"Letters from Germans", the penultimate chapter, is the book's most powerful, noticeably demonstrating the tension between his memory of that time period, and the memory of various Germans, in their own words. He especially berates those who believe they are doing the right thing by speaking out in shame and guilt over theit past, perhaps attacking them a bit harshly, but certainly with justification. The last chapter, "Conclusion", is its weakest. In the opinion of this reviewer, it over-generalizes, and tries to apply retrospective analysis to the world's future. It also calls for unwarranted conclusions, unrelated to the preceding chapters, and perhaps contradicts itself. Luckily it is brief, and does not detract from the excellence of the prior explorations.
(For example, he says war is unecessary, and mankind can settle all conflicts around a table, but only as long as we are in good faith. He then calls Hitler a buffoon, implying he cannot be taken in good faith. He next says we need not have good faith to negotiate if we are all equally in fear of war, but this sounds like he is saying war is necessary after all, even if only to remind us there are punishments for negotiation in bad faith!)
Despite its conclusion (which many readers will probably enjoy, despite this reviewer's belief it over-reaches), the book is an intelligent and even-handed, but personal assessment of the Holocaust, written in an engaging and intelligent style, with brevity and wit. At 200 pages, it is easy to read. Packed with philosophy and insight, it is worth the investment.
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Title: Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi ISBN: 0684826801 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: REAWAKENING by Primo Levi ISBN: 0684826356 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Periodic Table by Primo Levi ISBN: 0805210415 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: If Not Now, When? (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Primo Levi, William Weaver ISBN: 0140188932 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1995 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Moments of Reprieve (Twentieth Century Classics) by Primo Levi ISBN: 0140188959 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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