Primo Levi

One of Italy's leading men of letters, a chemist by profession, writes about incidents in his life in which one or another of the elements figured in such a way as to become a personal preoccupation

The Periodic Table

Raymond Rosenthal

In these haunting reflections, Primo Levi, a chemist by training, takes the elements of the periodic table as his inspiration. He ranges from young love to political savagery; from the inert gas argon - and 'inert' relatives like the uncle who stayed in bed for twenty-two years - to life-giving car bon. 'Iron' honours the mountain-climbing resistance hero who put iron in Levi's student soul, 'Cerium' recalls the improvised cigarette lighters which saved his life in Auschwitz, while 'Vanadium' describes an eerie post-war correspondence with the man who had been his 'boss' there.

Ben Hutchings

Love the style

Some stories were great

Others...

Too much chemistry 

PTSD

An extraordinary work in which each of the 21 chapters takes its title and starting point from one of the elements in the periodic table. Mingling fact and fiction, history and anecdote, Levi uses his training as a chemist and his experiences as a prisoner in Auschwitz to illuminate the human condition. "From the Hardcover edition.

Eleonora Casella

Le 3 stelle sono dovute al fatto che lo stile di Primo Levi mi piace molto, è semplice, ma affatto banale, e perché trovo che l'ultimo capitolo, Carbonio, sia un capolavoro che cattura occhi e cuore. 
Però devo ammettere che l'inizio è stato devastante, ho trovato Argon estremamente noioso, poi meglio, fino ad arrivare a Cromo che ho saltato, altrimenti il libro sarebbe ancora nei currently-reading.
Tutto sommato ha carattere, ma la storia di per sé non mi ha entusiasmata.

The Periodic Table

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