Here comes the science
Aug. 29th, 2022 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: The Periodic Table, by Primo Levi
Unlike the previous book I read, where I had expectations that were not fulfilled, in this case I really wasn't sure what to expect, and so was easily satisfied. Unsurprisingly, once it gets going, there is a sense of being in the same universe as Umberto Eco. Some of the essays are fairly directly autobiographical, retelling Levi's experiences before, during, and after World War 2, including his time at the Buna plant near Auschwitz (but without the detail, presumably, of his other writings about that time). Others are more fictitious, or at least historical. In Argon, the chemical properties of the noble gases are compared figuratively to some of his more inert family members, but in most of the essays the writing is directly related to the element chosen to title the section, which makes for an unusual read. There are some hair-rising chemical escapades, and Italian race laws of the period force him to move in a peripatetic no-man's land, but Levi maintains a down-to-earth, quotidian style throughout.
Unlike the previous book I read, where I had expectations that were not fulfilled, in this case I really wasn't sure what to expect, and so was easily satisfied. Unsurprisingly, once it gets going, there is a sense of being in the same universe as Umberto Eco. Some of the essays are fairly directly autobiographical, retelling Levi's experiences before, during, and after World War 2, including his time at the Buna plant near Auschwitz (but without the detail, presumably, of his other writings about that time). Others are more fictitious, or at least historical. In Argon, the chemical properties of the noble gases are compared figuratively to some of his more inert family members, but in most of the essays the writing is directly related to the element chosen to title the section, which makes for an unusual read. There are some hair-rising chemical escapades, and Italian race laws of the period force him to move in a peripatetic no-man's land, but Levi maintains a down-to-earth, quotidian style throughout.