It is rare that any book or work of art brings tears to my eyes through its sheer artistry.
I have just finished reading Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table, one of the few books I have ever read to achieve that feat - even though it is translated from Italian.
This quirky, sublime book by an Italian Jewish chemist is surely one of the great testaments to the sheer power of the human spirit ever written - as well as having one of the strangest, yet most logical, methods of organization I have ever seen. Tragic in parts, it is also hysterically funny in others.
A beautiful read. Go out and read it - you won’t be dissapointed.
Thanks - I tried to recommend it to a friend, but she refused to read something written by a chemist and called “The Periodic Table”, on the unshakable belief that it has got to be boring.
I don’t know about bringing tears, but it is certainly a beautiful work of art. What I loved was the understated tone of the book - content to share life’s little epiphanies in the knowledge that that is what life’s all about, not high drama or melodrama.
Too bad that everyone I know prefers one of King’s “big macs” over fine literary dining like this.
No question - a classic.
I found ‘If This is a Man’ very hard to read due to the subject matter but ‘Periodic Table’ is awesome.
I’ll look for a link but there is some talk that Levi was murdered rather than having committed suicide.
I’m reviving this thread because I just finished the novel - the first book I’ve read solely based on a recommendation from the SDMB.
I loved how Levi used the physical and chemical characteristics of the elements as metaphors for his larger points - I think there was a chapter on either sodium or potassium where the similarities (and the violent reactions) of the two elements become symbolic of German Nazism and Italian Fascism.
I remember reading one chapter (Palladium, I think) for a writing course and liking it mildly (though I forget what it was about). Your reactions are definitely making me want to read the whole thing, which means yet another book to add to the reading list. Sigh…
It just so happens that I’m reading this right now, and enjoying it very much. I just finished “Mercury”.
(I was led to this book by Oliver Sacks’ Uncle Tungsten, which I really enjoyed a lot too. I recommend it as well, though not quite so highly. But it did help me understand the periodic table much better!)
Well, it is nice to see that someone read it because of this thread.
One of my favorite chapters is when he finds out that the client of the chemical firm he is working for is the same guy who was his supervisor in the death camp - for some reason, I found that section incredibly moving. I think it was “Vanadium”.
