Customer Reviews

The Periodic Table

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This is the first book by Primo Levi that I've read. The man was a brilliant author.

"The Periodic Table" cleverly takes the elements that are part of our everyday lives and uses each to illustrate a story, most of which are his view point of 1940s Italy, before or after he was sent to Auschwitz. (Very little of this book has to do with the actual death camp, though its impressions are evident.) Levi, a chemist, tells autobiographical tales of his desire to make people see in the logical way that chemists see the world.

The way that Levi weaves words might be more expected from a poet than from a scientist. Above all, however, Levi was an observer of both elements and of human nature. I'm only sorry that I discovered him after he died; I might have written to tell him how much I enjoyed his book. My mother, a scientist, is emotionally unable to read any more books about the Holocaust; but as this book doesn't talk about the horrors of the camps but about the era, why, I think I'll lend it to her.

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I started this book expecting a story of how a Jew survived the Holocaust in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. I thought that I'd read about tragedy and misfortune, but I didn't get what I expected.

What I got was a tale of subtle defiance and quiet resiliency to the war that looms in the background of the book. The author hints at the drama and struggle of the war through his many short vignettes--each related to an element from the Periodic Table--but he is never overcome by it, remaining distant from the events, submitting helplessly to the way things were, but looking brightly toward the future.

This was altogether a very interesting book. Strangely inspiring, aloof but aware, it provided me a view of the second world war that I never would have imagined.

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.

Levi is one of my heroes - a scientist who overcame a horrific life experience (the Holocaust camp experience), losing friends and relatives yet did not become bitter or carry his anger for ages. The writer is the face of Western humanism and his Jewish Italian roots seem to make him almost humble in tone.

The idea of naming each chapter after an element then creating a life story around it is exactly the kind of writing to which I and apparently many others are drawn. Besides dispensing scientific facts along the way, Levi teaches us the meaning of life and living and even humor. One of the best and most approachable "science" books around.

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.

I read this book for the first time about five years ago, but since then I've read it many times (and as a matter of fact, all Primo Levi's books). The special thing about THE PERIODIC TABLE is that brings the joy of life ans science, and also of lecture, to everyone who reads it. I know this is the greatest book ever written: it's simplicity deserves every acclamation.

Levi is one of my heroes - a scientist who overcame a horrific life experience (the Holocaust camp experience), losing friends and relatives yet did not become bitter or carry his anger for ages. The writer is the face of Western humanism and his Jewish Italian roots seem to make him almost humble in tone. The idea of naming each chapter after an element then creating a life story around it is exactly the kind of writing I search for.

Besides dispening some scientific facts along the way, Levi teaches us the meaning of life and living and even humor. One of the best and most approachable "science" books around.

I bought and read this book some time ago but some passages were so good they are still fresh in my memory. This story is both unexpected and very engaging. I believe he was a wise man. Primo Levi is on my all-time top 100 list of people I wish I could have met.

Primo Levi was a gifted writer that happened to practice chemistry. In these short memoirs he tells the story of a chemist, a chemist that is living in Mussolini's Italy, a chemist that is Jewish and survived Auschwitz. Levi has written of Auschwitz previously and only a single chapter in "The Periodic Table" directly discusses Auschwitz.

To many readers the career of a chemist might seem as exciting as the career of an accountant or a tax attorney, essential to society, but better left to someone else. It hardly seems the subject for a remarkable literary work.

Levi paints an intriguing portrait of a chemist, a detective unraveling the secrets of matter, a philosopher searching for meaning. We learn much about the kinds of problems that excite a chemist and how a chemist goes about searching for answers. But we learn more about Levi himself, about life in a Fascist state, and about human relationships in difficult situations.

Primo Levi titled each chapter with the name of an element that either plays a role in that particular chapter or exhibits characteristics that are metaphorically descriptive of human relationships portrayed in that chapter.

Most chapters revolve about an important biographical event. However, the first chapter, Argon, tells a rather quiet (inert) story of the unexciting Levi family history and it might be best to skip chapter one until later. Hydrogen, the second chapter, is more exciting, almost explosive. Zinc, Iron, Potassium, Nickel, and others follow.

Three chapters - Lead, Mercury, and Carbon - are fictional. I was absolutely fascinated by all three. Levi is a great story teller. Lead should be read by students of history and Mercury likewise. Carbon should be mandatory reading for all students of chemistry and biology, probably for all humanities majors too.

I have read "The Periodic Table" several times and it remains one of my favorite books. It melds sadness and humor, offers prose that is almost poetry, and uniquely blends history, chemistry, and memoir. It is widely recognized as an exceptional work of literature.

Chemistry was never my favorite subject. Nor was the Holocaust. Yet Levi manages to bring these two seemingly unrelated topics together in a novel that I can only begin to hope I fully understand some day.

The title "The Periodic Table'" is both a misnomer, and extremely appropriate for the book. Divided into chapters, each of which are titled as the name of a different element, Levi uses the Periodic table as a grounding point for his essays, and each element as a grounding point within the chapter. The coldness of iron, the smell of sulfur, and the journey that a molecule of carbon takes. Levi, whose formal training was as a chemist, relates these simple atoms to a much more complicated--and tragic picture.

This book knocked my socks off. The strength of this work lies not within his description of the Holocaust; he acknowledges that he already dealt with that in his work, "Survival in Auschwitz"; but in the simplicity by which he portrays such a complicated time.