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Title: The Periodic Table by Primo Levi ISBN: 0-8052-1041-5 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 04 April, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.96 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Why only five stars?
Comment: This book, like all truly great books, can be viewed in many ways. A possible, rewarding one is to view it as the story of an education. Each chapter, named after the periodic table of the elements, tells about the acquisition of an important piece of the mosaic that was Primo Levi.There is the discovery of the "essential language" of science, as opposed to the void rethoric of fascism, the discovery of courage, in the chapter named "Iron", of rigor, in the "potassium". But this is not a didactical book. This is a series of wonderful tales, of exquisite poetry and of life, true life. I didn't read more than five books comparable to this one.
Rating: 5
Summary: Toward a Deeper Understanding
Comment: Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow said, regarding this book, "There is nothing superfluous here; everything this book contains is essential. It is wonderfully pure and beautifully translated."
Since I read this book in the original Italian, I cannot attest to the beauty of the translation. However, I would agree with Bellow that the book is wonderfully pure and lacking in the superfluous.
The Periodic Table, Primo Levi's fantasy regarding chemical elements and written in his elegant, spare style, is filled with images that animate the chemist's world. To a trained chemist, as Levi was, the molecular world is very real, and the its underlying events do not go unnoticed. This is the world that exists beneath the one we usually see; the world that gives matter its colors, tastes, smells, shapes and capacities. Levi's desire for a more complete understanding of the chemical world parallels his desire for a more complete understanding of the spiritual world of mankind.
In this book, Levi tells us, in part, of his years as a teenager and of his experiences with another young man named Enrico. Both boys wanted to become chemists, but for very different reasons. Enrico thought that chemistry would be the key to a more secure life. Levi, however, looked at chemistry as a way to understand and make sense of the universe. He says, "Chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black evolutes torn by fiery flashes." He goes on to describe his burning desire to find the truths hidden in chemistry by telling us that he would have grabbed Proteus, himself, by the throat and forced him to speak, so great was his hunger.
Levi's burning desire for a deeper understanding of the universe and all it contains is not new. The ancients, such as Aristotle, and later, Newton, also searched for the key to the mysteries of life. But Levi's desire was perhaps more pure, more essential. He writes, "Conquering matter is to understand it, and understanding matter is necessary to understanding the universe and ourselves."
Although chiefly a Holocaust memoir, the book is not without its lighter moments. In school, Levi had decided that chemistry alone could no longer fulfill his needs and he resolved to pursue physics. As an assistant, he was called upon to prepare pure dry benzene for an experiment by distilling the solvent over sodium. However, using potassium instead of sodium, Levi caused a laboratory fire.
The quest for knowledge of the universe is ongoing. Levi, however, sadly found himself spurred on by the prejudices that only man can inflict on man.
Rating: 5
Summary: Primo Levi's way out book
Comment: The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is quite a fascinating book. Although the first chapter is slow (as pointed out in other reviews) the other chapters are pretty interesting. Although only one chapter directly relates to Auschwitz there is another about Primo's involvement with the partisans in Italy (including the bit about the gun he doesn't know how to use), and a very interesting chapter called Vanadium which is the second last chapter. This chapter is based on Primo's dealings with a German chemist (Dr Muller) in 1967. Dr Muller was a head of the Buna Rubber plant at Auschwitz where Primo worked. Basically Primo has business dealings with this person as well as personal correspondence although it's not as insightful as you might think because by Primo's own admission Dr Muller does not make a perfect protagonist because he was a civilian (business chief of Buna which was part of IG Farben I believe) and not a member of the SS, and therefore Primo realises that he won't get answers to questions like "Why Auschwitz?" (Although Primo corresponding with one of the butchers of Auschwitz could be a bit too weird). Nonetheless Primo's dealings with this person are very complex/interesting/multilayered/etc.
The tale about the centuries long journey of a carbon atom from being part of limestone to being part of Primo's brain is pretty way out too.
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Title: The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi ISBN: 067972186X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 April, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Monkey's Wrench (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Primo Levi, Ruth Feldman ISBN: 0140188924 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: July, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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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: July, 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: July, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Double Bond: The Life of Primo Levi by Carole Angier ISBN: 0374113157 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 22 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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