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Book ReviewsThe Periodic Table |
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Book: The Periodic Table
Written by: PRIMO LEVI |
Publisher: Schocken
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5
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Interesting Approach
Rating:
4 / 5
This book tells parts of the life story of Primo Levi, author, chemist, and Auschwitz survivor. Levi came of age in Fascist Italy and graduated university with a degree in chemistry just as World War II started tearing apart his world. Caught by German soldiers in a Partisan camp, he was shipped off to the Auschwitz death camp as a Jew. He survived the camp thanks to his chemistry skills, which secured him a job in a rubber factory near the camp. When he returned to Italy following liberation, he resumed work as a chemist, but he also took up writing as a means to communicate the experiences he had been through. Over the years, he published a number of books about Auschwitz, as well as books of poetry and stories. In this book, he records his memoirs as a chemist, with each chapter dedicated to an individual element.
The chapters are quite varied in topic and approach. At least two of the chapters are fanciful works of fiction, short stories that he wrote as a young man. The book begins with a chapter on the Noble gases, in which he compares his ancestors, now just memories, to inert gases such as argon. Other chapters early in the book are also based on comparisons between character traits of favorite people and chemical elements. The later chapters, however, are centered around stories or episodes in his life that featured substantive examples of one of the chemical elements. Some of the stories are quite amusing, others interesting in the historical perspective they provide of conditions of post-war Italy, and some, those describing the Nazi occupation and the concentration camp are disturbing. The stories are written as stand-alone entities, rather than fitting smoothly together as a coherent whole. Nevertheless, they are they are organized in strictly chronological order so that the reader can piece together the main events of Levi's life.
fascinating
Rating:
3 / 5
A rather laid back style of writing in a very conversational approach. The aspect of his holocast experience is very fleeting and somehow I would have wished for a bit more insight. From a scientific aspect, one has to appreciate his ability to solve problems, sometimes with minimal equipment. He clearly is a survivor, not just from his Auschwitz experience, but his ability to forge an existence when others were losing theirs. The first chapter put me off, wondering where this would all lead. Then, it took hold and was delightful to read. The periodic table relates to how he labels each chapter. The chemistry involved is really that of problem solving and insights and the ability to dig deeper. One will not need to fear learning a lot about chemistry per se, but will learn about an approach. It is a light read of a fascinating person. In many ways, it shows the importance of connections; one cannot exist without others. There are many lessons to be learned in this book. It also tells how science was taught and practiced in the 1930's through the post war period. I would hope that people would not leave the book thinking that is how is is still done, although the ability to solve problems still remains in the forefront.
The Periodic Table
Rating:
5 / 5
In the third to last chapter of The Periodic Table, the narrator - Levi - goes to his 25th University Anniversary. He meets a colleague of his, one that he did not know too well during university, and they swap stories on chemistry, a passion and an occupation both dear to their hearts and the thorn in their side. Levi informs the man of the latest book he is writing, a small book, one that, he hopes, will convey the quiet satisfaction he derives from chemistry, because it 'did not seem fair to me that the world should know everything about how the doctor, prostitute, sailor, assassin, countess, Ancient Roman, conspirator and Polynesian lives and nothing about how we transformers of matter live.'
That sentence sums up very well the thrust of the novel. Split into chapters named after a different element of the Periodic Table, Levi takes us on a journey through his life, from boyhood to adulthood, the primary preoccupation of which being chemistry. There is a very large section that he glosses over - the trauma he experienced in a Nazi concentration camp - and this is because he has, in his own words, more than adequately dealt with that subject matter previously. No, this book is not an upraised fist at Nazi Germany, but it does not shy away from the topic, either. First and foremost, it is a series of essays on chemistry. Not the grandiose, world-changing chemistry, but the small achievements, the humble failures, the baffling oddities.
First, is Argon. Argon is an inert gas, resistant to change. Just like his family, Levi muses, rapidly jumping back a century and recounting his extended family history from there, with liberal doses of Jewish linguistics and customs thrown in for good measure. Now, acquainted as to the sort of man Levi is, we wander through his college years, each chapter focusing both on his growth as a chemist and a person, but also on the element for which it is named. Interspersed throughout are a few, largely unrelated short stories that deal with a specific element in an interesting way, the story of lead being a particular highlight. These are stories that he composed as a young man, polished and presented in an easily consumed fashion in this, his endstone book.
The second last chapter briefly touches on Levi's World War II experience. Through a 'typical' chemistry story involving Vanadium, he engages in correspondence with a man who is later revealed to have been one of the many German officers in Bruno, where Levi was incarcerated. This story is sad, and for me was the most powerful of the fifteen or so on offer. Levi is frightened at the idea of meeting this man again - not because the German was specifically cruel, but because it brings back a life since over. The German, Dr Muller, is anxious to be forgiven, trying to 'settle his accounts with the past and they didn't tally'. For Muller, this meeting might even the score, for Levi, it could never. This chapter is one of the shortest, but carries with it the full weight of experience, sadness, and forgotten terror.
For the most part, however, the novel is not depressing or bleak. Rather, it shows the small joys allowed to a chemist who truly loves his occupation. Chemistry puzzles are solved, there are adventures involving chicken excrement and lipstick - don't ask - and throughout, there is a sense that chemistry can be fun, can be enjoyable, can be exciting. No, it is enjoyable, fun and exciting, but only for certain people. And for these people - Levi obviously included - it is a passion, a friend, a lover, and he wishes to share this joy with us, the sadly ignorant reader. I thank him for that.
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