Levi, Primo

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A clinical memoir of the Holocaust -- and that's good
The meaning of being 'human'
Book Review for Survival in Auschwitz
Great book on the Holocaust
100% Recommended

Survival In Auschwitz
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684826801

Amazon.com

Survival in Auschwitz is a mostly straightforward narrative, beginning with Primo Levi's deportation from Turin, Italy, to the concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland in 1943. Levi, then a 25-year-old chemist, spent 10 months in the camp. Even Levi's most graphic descriptions of the horrors he witnessed and endured there are marked by a restraint and wit that not only gives readers access to his experience, but confronts them with it in stark ethical and emotional terms: "[A]t dawn the barbed wire was full of children's washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundred other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him something to eat today?" --Michael Joseph Gross

Book Description

In 1943, Primo Levi, a twenty-five-year-old chemist and "Italian citizen of Jewish race," was arrested by Italian fascists and deported from his native Turin to Auschwitz. Survival in Auschwitz is Levi's classic account of his ten months in the German death camp, a harrowing story of systematic cruelty and miraculous endurance. Remarkable for its simplicity, restraint, compassion, and even wit, Survival in Auschwitz remains a lasting testament to the indestructibility of the human spirit. Included in this new edition is an illuminating conversation between Philip Roth and Primo Levi never before published in book form.

Customer Reviews:

A clinical memoir of the Holocaust -- and that's good.......2007-06-03

A touching, but not mawkish or dramatic, memoir. One realizes the randomness and happenstance by which he survived, and easily accepts the moral dualism of the life of thievery and connivance, within bounds of common decency and collective group self-interest, that kept any survivor alive. Some reviews seemed to fault the book for being unemotional, but one sees how Levi's essentially scientific and objective personality became a key to his survival, and necessarily informs his voice.

The meaning of being 'human'.......2007-01-16

This account of the imprisonment, internment, survival of Primo Levi in Auschwitz is written as a straightforward chronological narrative. Levi recounts his initial capture , the horrendous suffering of the journey of Italian Jews to Auschwitz, the selection there in which all the woman and children were immediately sent to their deaths in the gas- chambers, and in which the able- bodied sent to the work- camp at Buna. Levi tells the story , detail by detail of his getting into the work- order of the Camp. He describes in clear precise language the horrible humiliations the prisoners were subject to. He also describes in one central chapter, four different kinds of survivors, and the strategies they use to escape death. His accounts of his own getting through to the liberation include his appreciations of his friend Albert, and a few other individuals who with no reward to expect for it, helped him on the way.
The bestiality of the Nazis and their helpers is not sermonized about, but rather portrayed in specific incidents of unusual terrible cruelty.
Levi is deeply concerned with the whole question of what it means to be human , and how it is possible to retain human dignity in the most extreme circumstances.
His carefully written record of his own horrifying experience is to this day considered one of the most moving and effective of Holocaust memoirs.

Book Review for Survival in Auschwitz.......2007-01-13

The book Survival in Auschwitz is by Primo Levi. It is about a twenty-five year old chemist named Primo Levi, who is an Italian citizen of the Jewish race. He was captured by Italian Fascists in 1943 and was transported to a concentration camp in Auschwitz where he spent 10 months known as Haftling 174517. At the concentration camps they were authorized to build a Buna- a rubber processing plant. Those who were unable to work were immediately killed. Those who worked in the "Lagers" had a better chance of living because the Germans decided that the Jews in the lagers would be more of use alive than dead. Levi who works in the lager talks about how some people would trade possessions such as clothing, spoons, bowls, shoes etc. for rations of bread or food in the lagers. Those who got injured in work in the lagers were sent to Ka-Be. Ka-Be is the abbreviation of Krankenbau, which is a temporary infirmary. Those who seem to get better at Ka-Be were sent back to work and those who seem to get worse are sent from Ka-Be to the gas chambers. Later on in this book Levi and two other chemists were authorized to work in the labs. This job had some benefits. They were given a new shirt and were to work indoors, rather than out in the winter weather, and this job wasn't strenuous.

This is a book about survival. I dint like this book too much. I found this book hard to understand at some points and most of the German words are hard to pronounce. I would recommend this book to people who have interest in World War 2 or the Holocaust.

Great book on the Holocaust.......2006-12-19

Ever since I first studied the Holocaust in the eighth grade, I love reading and listening to the stories of the people who were in the Holocaust. This is the first Holocaust book that I read. I first read this book when I was in high school. This is one of my favorite Holocaust books.

100% Recommended.......2006-09-29

It recounts the hellish 12 months that Primo Levi, an Italian jew, spent as Haftling 174517, at the notorious Deathcamp (during 1939 and 1944 2 million people were murdered there). He was captured by the Fascist Militia in December 1943 and wished to be charged based on his religious beliefs rather than his political ones in the view that he would be treated more leniently. After a period in a detention camp at Fossili, Modena, he along with the rest of the Jews are transferred to the concentration camps. The opening chapters describe the horrific conditions of the transfer and the hasty selection process used to determine who would go to the camp and who would go to the gas chambers at Birkenau; all the women, children and infirm were sent to cremation without question. In some ways he was fortunate to have avoided arrest until the latter stages of the war as the Germans decided that the prisoners in the lagers would be of more use to them alive than dead, at Auschwitz they were detailed to build a Buna - a synthetic rubber processing plant which never saw a day of production. Prior to this the prisoners were killed without recourse.

It recounts how far a man can sink and yet survive - every action is a matter of life or death, from conserving energy to get through the next day; to the importance of a good pair of shoes that won't cause sores leading to infection and death; keeping an eye out for any article that can be bartered for a ration of bread; the debilitating effects of the Polish winter when 7 out of 10 prisoners would perish; obtaining a position of some responsibility in the camp (unfortunately usually conferred to a german criminal prisoner); to paring ones emotions until the only thing left is the innate sense of survival and concern for one's own wellbeing; he even describes the characters of different prisoners and how they use every human instinct, guile, cunning, pity etc to remain alive for just one more day.

Out of respect for all those that perished in the camps I believe that this book should be read - if for no other reason that inside of us all there is the possibility that we could become one of the people that design, guard, administer such a camp. If you think you're having a tough time - this book may put things into perspective - you will be different for having read this book.

Average customer rating:

good chemistry!
Daringly creative
Delightful collection of vignettes
deceptively simple
poetry for life

The Periodic Table
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805210415
Release Date: 1995-04-04

Amazon.com

Writer Primo Levi (1919-1987), an Italian Jew, did not come to the wide attention of the English-reading audience until the last years of his life. A survivor of the Holocaust and imprisonment in Auschwitz, Levi is considered to be one of the century's most compelling voices, and The Periodic Table is his most famous book. Springboarding from his training as a chemist, Levi uses the elements as metaphors to create a cycle of linked, somewhat autobiographical tales, including stories of the Piedmontese Jewish community he came from, and of his response to the Holocaust.

Book Description

The Periodic Table is largely a memoir of the years before and after Primo Levi’s transportation from his native Italy to Auschwitz as an anti-Facist partisan and a Jew.

It recounts, in clear, precise, unfailingly beautiful prose, the story of the Piedmontese Jewish community from which Levi came, of his years as a student and young chemist at the inception of the Second World War, and of his investigations into the nature of the material world. As such, it provides crucial links and backgrounds, both personal and intellectual, in the tremendous project of remembrance that is Levi’s gift to posterity. But far from being a prologue to his experience of the Holocaust, Levi’s masterpiece represents his most impassioned response to the events that engulfed him.

The Periodic Table celebrates the pleasures of love and friendship and the search for meaning, and stands as a monument to those things in us that are capable of resisting and enduring in the face of tyranny.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

good chemistry!.......2007-06-17

I didn't know what to expect when picking up this book. I'd recently finished the not unrelated Garden of the Finzi-Continis and thought I might find some variant on this. Yes, both books consider Jewish-Italian culture in the years surrounding WWII, with the specter of the holocaust in the background (mainly). But they are quite different. F.C. has at its roots the humanities, and P.T., the sciences. And what I most enjoyed about P.T. was the chemistry. It's a rarity in literature to find a subtle appreciation for the career of the scientist, and Levi succeeds admirably. This book would be an outstanding choice for any science and engineering student to read just to see how one can ply a trade, be it in the laboratory, the mine, or the consulting business. Bravo, Dr. Levi.

Daringly creative.......2007-03-09

In this collection of stories, Primo Levi lets go of the Holocaust theme, and tells the story of his life through the prism of his profession as a chemist. As others have said, each chapter is headed up by a different element, and through the properties of that element he explores a theme. There are two chapters--"Lead" and "Mercury"--which are completely fanciful. "Lead" is about a mythical tribe that makes its living mining lead. Not knowing that the metal is deadly, they all ultimately die of a mysterious disease, but they accept it as their fate, the price they pay for fulfilling a special role among men. "Mercury" is about a couple living on a desert island, which holds inexhaustible reserves of mercury, and what happens when two newcomers, one an alchemist, joins them. Both stories are riveting.

I have to admit that I, as well as my very literate book group, lost a lot by having forgotten most if not all of our knowledge of chemistry--not that we had much to begin with. Some familiarity with the science I'm sure reveals a whole new level to the writing.

Some reviewers criticized the lack of insight about the author's time in Auschwitz, but I see that as one of the amazing aspects of this book. For good reason, so many Holocaust survivors are irreversibly marked and changed forever by their experiences. That Levi can write a rich and compelling book that gives weight and significance to the other parts of his life is evidence of an amazingly strong and resilient spirit.

Delightful collection of vignettes.......2007-03-02

Difficult to classify, not quite an autobiography, but it is nearly so. More a loose collection of short stories principally from the life of the author each based on a chemical element as the focus of the story. Levi then expands on the story more to the why then the what. A search for meaning beneath the activities of the characters leads to a multidimensional feel for them.

The writing style is the main strength of this work. From time to time it does lead Levi to digress farther than I feel he should. Mostly his digressions are positive and add feeling.

This is not a light read. I struggled with the first chapter and if I had not been waiting to be impaneled in a jury for 3 hours I may not have made it through the beginning (and would have been my loss). If you find the beginning difficult, skipping the first chapter, "argon" will not detract from the rest of the work.

I hope you will find this work enjoyable from the discussions of insurmountable struggle in "nickel", the fanciful "lead", the mystery novel in "silver", or the powerful examination of how we live with our past actions in "vanadium". How we each apply revisionist history to our own lives in "uranium" is a tale we can all grow from.

I would have rated the work higher if it had more cohesion, and if from time to time I had not felt the author was adding words merely because he could (see comment of chapter 1 "argon"). And keep your dictionary handy; "The Periodic Table" will be good for your vocabulary.

deceptively simple.......2006-10-12

Primo Levi, a chemist and a young Italian Jew, grew up during WWII in Mussolini's Italy. The Periodic Table relates his story. Part autobiography, part poetry, part history and science textbook, Levi fuses these together in a "life-thesis" filled by both comedy and drama. This unique and unforgettable memoir is organized by the periodic table of the elements.

The chapter titles range from Argon to Zinc and, like the elements themselves, each with its own distinctive characteristics. The element denoted in each chapter heading is often literally represented in the particular chronicle. And yet, if the reader delves further in interpretation, the element often relates metaphorically to the human experience depicted within the text. While the majority of the novel's chapters orbit various important biographical events in Levi's intriguing existence, three of the book's chapters are fictional: Carbon, Lead and Mercury.

Often deceptively simple, Periodic Table is hardly an elementary read -- Levi's concepts, philosophies and frequent use of veiled symbolism, require and deserve lengthy deliberation to digest their hidden depths. Beautiful in its precision, it is the story of a life touched by the experience of science, war and love.

Curious, unconventional, poignant and memorable, The Periodic Table is the magnum opus of memoirs.
Read it.

poetry for life.......2006-05-10

I remember reading "surviving auschwitz" almost a decade ago, confounded by its pervading darkness interspersed with the author's brilliant interpretations of life. This book is quite different in that each essay draws comparisons of characters and events with those of the nature of science, and of being. Primo Levi marriages mystery with knowledge, beauties with beasts, and delivers memorable tales of the human person.

A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Stories of Primo Levi

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Primo Levi-A Tranquil Star
Uneven, but find your own favorites among these tales

A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Stories of Primo Levi
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393064689

Book Description

The first English publication of seventeen classic Primo Levi stories marks the twentieth anniversary of his death. "In Levi's writing, nothing is superfluous and everything is essential."—Saul Bellow A Tranquil Star, the first new American collection of Primo Levi previously untranslated fiction to appear since 1990, affirms his position as one of the twentieth century's most enduring writers. These seventeen stories, first published in Italian between 1949 and 1986, demonstrate Levi's extraordinary range, taking the reader from the primal resistance of a captured partisan fighter to a middle-aged chemist experimenting with a new paint that wards off evil, to the lustful thoughts of an older man obsessed with a mysterious woman in a seaside villa. In the title story, Levi demonstrates his unerringly tragic understanding of the fragility of the universe through the tale of a pensive astronomer, terrified by the possibility that a long-dormant star might explode and reduce the entire planet to vapor. This remarkable new collection affirms Italo Calvino's conviction that Levi was "one of the most important and gifted writers of our time."

Customer Reviews:

Primo Levi-A Tranquil Star.......2007-06-14

Primo Levi is the most honest intepreter of the Holocaust and of his own life and experiences. He envelopes the reader and invites him to become part of him as he tells about his life, experiences and the philosophy that is his life. One can feel his sensitivity and honesty in all his writing-he is not out to impress but rather to document in language that is sophisticated but clear. I have read all his books, he has molded the way I see life and what I expect of it and myself. This book is a collection of short stories clearly written and constantly demanding that the reader think and move beyond himself and his life. I highly recomend this book and all others he has written.

Uneven, but find your own favorites among these tales.......2007-06-02

This is between a three and a four "star" effort compared to the best of Levi already published, but it remains for those of us limited to English-language versions for Levi's work a welcome arrival on the small shelf of his writing over nearly forty years. These stories appear in English for the first time, commemorating the twentieth anniversary of his death.

This thin anthology gathers seventeen short tales--not all of them are full-fledged stories. They range from a park full of figures from literature who survive there as long as they are remembered (a conceit that has another twist in Kevin Brockmeier's recent novel "A Brief History of the Dead," also reviewed by me on Amazon) to a deadly little weapon called a "knall" to a gladiator fight pitting cars against hammer-throwing humans. Some are more fantastic, recalling Italo Calvino's fables but with more of an edgy or jaundiced view towards human weakness and unpredictable foibles. These, of the magic paint "tantalum" that works great until the user's bath time, or a kangaroo in "Buffet Dinner," or the Kafkaesque "Bureau of Vital Statistics," remind me of similar reflections collected in the earlier volume "The Mirror Maker." Tales in "A Tranquil Star" like "The Fugitive," "The TV Fans," or "The Molecule's Defiance" (great title admittedly) fall into this mode. But these, in my opinion, are not as gripping as those closer to reality, or at least allegory!

If you have come to "A Tranquil Star" without having read Levi's earlier pieces in this mode, the subject matter may seem light and inconsequential compared to the Holocaust narratives for which he is most known in English today. The introduction gives a quick run-through of which stories appeared when; they range over the whole career of Levi, and the anthology does shift in tone and topic accordingly. The earliest entry powerfully dramatizes a partisan's last minutes of life, and "One Night" hints at wartime allegory, "Fra Diavolo" sounds practically autobiographical out of Fascist 1930s Italy. But even those stories with no Italian or European mid-century setting express the author's consistent concerns. All of Levi's prose contrasts fragility vs. dominance, clarity vs. confusion, and detachment vs. annihilation all occur.

In unsparing, yet graceful and calm expression, in this volume I find these topics treated most poignantly in the title story that concludes this book, about an expanding star. As the star bursts, the story suddenly switches, to a Peruvian astronomer's thoughts as he compares the photographic plates of what seems to be the same supernova. He then wonders what he will tell his family.

The universal and the immediate collide. Here is how the fate of a planet under the star is summed up. "After ten hours, the entire planet was reduced to vapor, along with all the delicate and subtle works that the combined labor of chance and necessity, through innumerable trials and errors, had perhaps created there, and along with all of the poets and wise men who had perhaps examined the sky, and had wondered what was the value of so many little lights, and had found no answer. That was the answer." (160) This excerpt shows the quality of Levi's voice at its clearest, and the transparent translation that brings these stories to us marvelously rendered.

Not all the stories are flawless. "The Girl in the Book" seems to fall flat, giving us what happens in real life rather than in fiction as its conclusion, but this does not satisfy after the buildup of the tale. Levi can be a tough entertainer. He prefers to separate himself from his tales, and perhaps his rigor leaves the weaker tales here floundering once they are separated from their teller's warmth.

They tend overall towards the brief elaboration of a clever image or idea. Like much fiction of this genre, the narrative arc fades. The teller's voice forces you to listen, to see, to enter into what he describes. This is the same as the Holocaust narratives, and Levi's skill appears in fiction to be less of a craftsman of the ornate prose style, the intricate plot, or the in-depth characterization than many other modern writers. Instead, he illuminates a train forced to halt one night and then backs away after he tells you in an eerily objective voice how it and the tracks around it were completely and silently dismantled. Parts of the rambling but engaging "Bear Meat" are the liveliest pages here. He sets up a mountaineering story (and like the "element" in "The Periodic Table," I wish Levi had written more about the peaks he loved to once climb) with appealing citations from Dante in "Bear Meat" but halfway through a second narrator interjects another anecdote, and then the story stops, the two halves settling but not joined neatly.

The kangaroo's dinner attendance is recounted, but after predictable mayhem, the beast jumps away into the evening and that's that. "Censorship in Bitinia" ends up exactly where you expect--it's clever, but not profound. "The Magic Paint" switches from the discussion of "tantalum" into Fessio's fate after his glasses are coated with another substance, and the narrator then halts. This jarring assembly may be intentional on Levi's part. It does mimic our own patterns of relating stories to each other in fragments and elisions and jerks and starts and stops.

But, for those seeking elegant fables and erudite wit, these fictions (what seem to be the last ones untranslated by now, so this may account for their uneven quality as stand-alone pieces) may reveal to you a handful, among the seventeen, that will prove as memorable as to me the title story. My other finalists are "The Sorcerers" with its predicament of two smart academics unable to convey the how-tos of all the technological wonders of the First World to a tribe in remote Bolivia's rainforest, and "One Night" with its disturbing abandoned train imagery. These leave me admiring again Levi's talent.

Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz

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Rudolph Hoess (Auschwitz Kommandant) and the Clarification of Some Holocaust Misconceptions
A very good tranlation
Rudolf Hoess' Mistress Interviewed
IT WAS NOT HOESS' FAULT
The Final Solution: An Inside View

Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz
Rudolf Höss
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306806983

Customer Reviews:

Rudolph Hoess (Auschwitz Kommandant) and the Clarification of Some Holocaust Misconceptions.......2007-05-31

I give this book five stars because of its historical value. This work not only gives insight into the mind of the leader of perhaps the greatest death factory ever built, but also allows a clearing-up of some errors that have accreted in the decades since that horrible time.

Hoess rejected God and the Church (p. 52-53, 57, 59, 72, 192), having rebelled against his father's wish that he become a priest. Like Himmler, he became an Artaman (pp. 202-203; a communal movement resembling the 1960's US communes, albeit Teutonic-centered) before switching to Nazism for his substitute religion.

Hoess wrote: "Until the beginning of 1942 the main body of prisoners was Polish." (p. 128). Many Poles were murdered secretly (the cause of death listed as natural), "...because of political and security reasons..." (p. 224).

During the Auschwitz Carmelite convent controversy, attempts were made to belittle the victimhood of Auschwitz Poles through the premise that they, unlike most Jews, were not generally killed upon arrival at Auschwitz. Hoess, in contrast, rejected any such dichotomy (if anything, praising the slow-death genocidal methods--as perfected by the Communists): "The Gestapo delivered the prisoners to the camps to be exterminated. It made no difference to them whether it happened by firing squad, gas, or by the horrible conditions in the camps. It was part of their plan not to improve conditions in the camps...Thus, the concentration camps were changed deliberately, and sometimes unintentionally, into large-scale extermination centers. The Kommandants received extensive composite reports from the Gestapo about the Soviet concentration camps. Escaped prisoners had made reports about the conditions and organization of these camps down to the smallest detail. They emphasized that by using forced labor methods the Soviets were annihilating entire nationalities." (pp. 168-169).

Holocaust-uniqueness advocates sometimes claim that the genocide of the Polish intelligentsia, unlike that of Jews, served a rational purpose--the elimination of resistance. Actually, the latter was, at most, a hoped-for byproduct of this nation-destroying act: "I want to add this, that the general opinion at SS headquarters was that the total annihilation of the Polish intelligentsia would also destroy the resistance movement. [SS Major] Thomsen was an ardent defender of this theory." (p. 322).

Initial plans to kill all Jews gave way to the sparing of some of them for forced labor (p. 34).

Hoess discussed the Jewish Sonderkommando in considerable detail. Those Jews temporarily got to save their lives by dutifully assisting in the deception, gassing, despoiling, and cremation of their fellow Jews. He also observed Jew-against-Jew behavior by some Jews who had no hope of postponing their own deaths. As they entered the gas chambers, they told Germans the addresses of fugitive Jews back home. Hoess commented: "I cannot explain what motivated them to reveal this information. Was it personal revenge, or were they jealous because they did not want the others to live on?" (p. 160).

In common with many Germans, Hoess attempts to rationalize his exterminatory conduct by equating it with the Allied bombings of German women and children. He estimates German civilian casualties in the several millions (p. 171), which is at least a 20-fold exaggeration.

As for lebensraum, Hoess belatedly concluded that Germany could have achieved it peacefully (p. 182).

Hoess suggested that crude propaganda such as Der Sturmer had hindered the development of scientific anti-Semitism (p. 140). He also came to believe that the extermination of Jews only brought hatred against Germany and increased Jewish power by discrediting anti-Semitism (p. 183).

This volume isn't limited to Hoess' memoirs. The entire Wannsee Protocol is printed in translation. It is obvious that the choice of Poland as the site of the German death camps was based solely on practical considerations (minimalized transportation) and had nothing to do with real or stereotyped Polish attitudes towards Jews: "State Secretary Dr. Buehler declared that the government of Occupied Poland would welcome it if the final solution to this question would be started in Occupied Poland. His reason: transport plays no important role here and the deployment of workers during the operation would not cause any problems." (p. 380).

A very good tranlation.......2007-01-06

My opinion is based on the comparison with the orginal publication in German, which I purchased in 1960 to provide essential information for the subsequent psychiatric evaluations of several thousand Holocaust survivors.

Rudolf Hoess' Mistress Interviewed.......2006-10-15

After Dachau was liberated, Army intelligence interviewed a woman at the camp who claimed to have been Rudolf Hoess' mistress while at Auschwitz. What details they could check were confirmed, and her interview became part of a Seventh Army report issued a few weeks later, a report that has been republished as Dachau Liberated: The Official Report (ISBN: 1587420031). For those who want to understand the infamous Hoess, that interview of "E.H." provides a much-needed check on his obviously self-serving autobiography. Here's a short passage from her interview:

"According to my recollection, on December 16, 1942, about 11 p.m. I was already asleep, suddenly the C.O. appeared before me. I hadn't heard the opening of my cell and was such frightened. It was dark in the cell. I believed at first it was an SS man or a prisoner and said, "What is this tomfoolery, I forbid you." Then I heard "Pst," and a pocket lamp was lighted and lit the face of the C.O. I broke out "Herr Kommandant."

Hoess didn't mention this clandestine affair in his autobiography, but details she gave fit with his account and with conditions at Auschwitz.

IT WAS NOT HOESS' FAULT.......2005-05-02

There is another autobiography of Hoess titled "Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess". I would be interested in reading that account but am curious how that could differ from "Death Dealer". Given the circumstances the man at the end of his life did not have a whole lot of time to write different autobiographies. My guess is the two books are essentially the same.

As for Death Dealer itself it is not often one reads an account of the concentration camps from the "other side". I had read other summaries that portrayed Hoess as a mid-level cold-hearted bureaucrat whose account of his SS career was pretty much emotionless and he treated his activities in the same manner an accountant or a department store manager or a mechanic or (pick a career) would describe their career. I thought before reading the book that whatever one may say about him he would at least not grovel for forgiveness and would defiantly flip his middle finger at the world before climbing the steps of the gallows. After all, when he wrote his memoirs in 1946 and 1947, there was little suspense over what his fate would be. So sugar coating his past was not going to change his future.

Although there may have been some shred of decency in the man one could not escape the feeling that he recognized himself as a war criminal only because his captors called him a war criminal. In other words his "mea culpa" would probably not score high on the sincerity scale. The victorious Allies were the new authorities over his life and if they considered him guilty and a war criminal then he was guilty and a war criminal. Whether he personally thought so or not was not relevant. And that was pretty much how he conducted his life. Whoever his authority was pretty much controlled his life. He was the commandant of the most notorious of all Nazi death camps because his superiors made him the commandant. He killed because he was told to kill -- just as he was to die because he was told he had to die.

He admitted the horrible conditions of Auschwitz -- and other camps. It was not Hoess' fault. His superiors -- starting with Hitler and Himmler -- put impossible demands on him and did not provide adequate resources. The conditions were horrible and only got worse as the war progressed due to the lack of resources due to the stranglehold the Allies put on Germany. It was not Hoess' fault. The inadequate resources included inadequate officers, staff, and guards who committed many atrocities for which he had little or no control. It was not Hoess' fault. The inadequate resources included inadequate building material, latrines, barrack space, food, water, sanitation system, and medical supplies. It was not Hoess' fault. The concentration camp administration reflected the ideals of Thomas Eicke, the founder of the concentration camp system. It was not Hoess' fault.

Although the man blamed others for the nightmarish hell of Auschwitz and other concentration camps he accepted responsibility because it was engrained into him that the commandant is responsible for all activities within the concentration camp.

This may be as close as one may come to reading an account of the "other side". Although one's opinion of the Holocaust may not be altered by Rudolf Hoess he does share insight that one normally does not see about this dark chapter of the history of humanity. Most people know what it is like to be over tasked and under resourced. But most people do not know what it is like to be over tasked and under resourced in his particular career field.

The Final Solution: An Inside View.......2005-04-21

On April 16, 1947, Rudolph Hoess, the infamous Kommandant of Auschwitz was hanged in his former concentration camp for, "crimes against the Polish people." While awaiting trial, Hoess, who knew he would pay for his crimes with his life, sought to renew the spiritual connection he had eschewed as a youth. Accordingly, he recounted his time in the SS for his captors. His story is also that of the darkest side of the Third Reich.

The book begins with a discussion of the, "final solution," of the Jewish Question. He tells how he was ordered to establish a camp at Auschwitz for the purpose of eliminating, "enemies of the state." Details of camp construction and experiments to find the appropriate gas he describes without emotion. Yet he relates questions asked by young SS soldiers and inmates as to how small children could be an "enemy." His "party line" response fooled some, but never himself.

Hoess also describes the victims he tried to destroy. Jews had "strong family ties;" gypsies were, "childlike;" the Jehovah's Witnesses were worthy of emulation. The SS was challenged to have the same devotion to the Fuhrer as they had to Jehovah. In chapter 22 he describes the gassing process as only he could do. His primary concern was to dispatch his victims quickly and efficiently without displaying emotion that would affect young guards. Here, he admits, he hid behind an iron mask. Particularly interesting is the story of a young, extremely attractive, Jewish girl who fought back even as she was undressing for the gas chamber. Resistance was rare but in this case, effective, very effective!

The book describes his early life and the events that caused him and many others to blindly follow the SS motto: "Fuhrer, you order. We obey!" Hoess gives a detailed description of the hierarchy of the SS. Men, who had been portrayed as super-human, are shown to have been far short of that ideal. Alcoholism and suicide rates were high; competence was low! Still, operations continued despite all difficulties because, "Orders were orders!"

Death Dealer is a first person account of the operations of the most infamous death camp in history. After sending an estimated 2.5 million people to their deaths, the Kommandant, ended his life by doing one decent thing: he left his memoirs so no one could deny this ever happened. For that, the world owes Rudoph Hoess, the Kommandant of Auschwitz, a debt of gratitude.

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A must for students of ethics
Thoughtful, intelligent, meaningful, and universal.
Encourages introspection
Primo Levi's Enduring Considerations of Auschwitz
extraordinary book, but with two crucial flaws

The Drowned and the Saved
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Survival In Auschwitz
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ASIN: 067972186X
Release Date: 1989-04-23

Amazon.com

This book, published months after Italian writer Primo Levi's suicide in 1987, is a small but powerful look at Auschwitz, the hell where Levi was imprisoned during World War II. The book was his third on the subject, following Survival in Auschwitz (1947) and The Reawakening (1963). Removed from the experience by time and age, Levi chose to serve more as an observer of the camp than the passionate young man of his previous work. He writes of "useless violence" inflicted by the guards on prisoners and then concludes the book with a discussion of the Germans who have written to him about their complicity in the event. In all, he tries to make sense of something that--as he knew--made no sense at all.

Book Description

Levi wrote of the moral collapse that occurred in Auschwitz and the fallibility of human memory that allows such atrocities to recur. Levi's last book published before his death in 1987.

Customer Reviews:

A must for students of ethics.......2004-09-18

This is a book that causes the reader to reconsider, reflect critically one's own views, marvel at the level of depravity to which humans can steep, and is one which I imagine should be a standard text in ethics courses.
But it also raises questions of memory and the mind"s ability to adjust, amend and retool. Mr Levi must stand as one of that sad century's most astonishing examples of positive human achievement .

Thoughtful, intelligent, meaningful, and universal........2003-01-21

"The Drowned and the Saved" is the final book of Primo Levi (1919-1987), a Jewish-Italian chemist who survived the death camp of Auschwitz, and turned to authorship in his later years. This book is a group of a half-dozen related essays, each exploring a specific aspect of Levi's view of the Holocaust's causes and effects.

He begins with the concept of "good faith", wondering whether believing a lie excuses it. He notes that oppressors lie to save themselves from believing they are evil, and victims lie to save themselves from believing they suffer. He explores the moral zone between black and white, noting that anybody can be a tough killer or a foolish victim: we are all tyrants and victims in our own way.

He examines survivor's guilt, and reflects on the roles of luck versus blessing in life, and discusses the ways humans need communication to survive, including the way victims bend language to disguise their intentions, and tyrants twist it to cause confusion among their victims.

He tries to distinguish between rationalized evil and collective madness. He believes the spirit and mind can be injured just as the body can, and wonders how a person's perspective plays a role in their survival and psychological health. He describes the various stereotypes people hold when they imagine the stories of those who lived through WWII, e.g., the romantic hero, the evil Nazi, the prisoner who always plots escape, and so on, but explains why they are rough and inaccurate.

Each chapter is like a conversation with an intelligent and qualified author. It is thoughtful, and a pleasure to read. It reflects on psychological and historical themes which are important not only to our understanding of the Holocaust, but also more generally human nature. (It appears to be a rumination on subjects discussed in his other books, collected and summarized briefly here.) It is for this reason that the book is successful. It considers the Holocaust in particular, but its themes are actually deeper and more universal.

"Letters from Germans", the penultimate chapter, is the book's most powerful, noticeably demonstrating the tension between his memory of that time period, and the memory of various Germans, in their own words. He especially berates those who believe they are doing the right thing by speaking out in shame and guilt over theit past, perhaps attacking them a bit harshly, but certainly with justification. The last chapter, "Conclusion", is its weakest. In the opinion of this reviewer, it over-generalizes, and tries to apply retrospective analysis to the world's future. It also calls for unwarranted conclusions, unrelated to the preceding chapters, and perhaps contradicts itself. Luckily it is brief, and does not detract from the excellence of the prior explorations.

(For example, he says war is unecessary, and mankind can settle all conflicts around a table, but only as long as we are in good faith. He then calls Hitler a buffoon, implying he cannot be taken in good faith. He next says we need not have good faith to negotiate if we are all equally in fear of war, but this sounds like he is saying war is necessary after all, even if only to remind us there are punishments for negotiation in bad faith!)

Despite its conclusion (which many readers will probably enjoy, despite this reviewer's belief it over-reaches), the book is an intelligent and even-handed, but personal assessment of the Holocaust, written in an engaging and intelligent style, with brevity and wit. At 200 pages, it is easy to read. Packed with philosophy and insight, it is worth the investment.

Encourages introspection.......2002-05-03

Primo Levi suggests that perceiving the experiences of others is extremely difficult and grows more so as the distance in time, space, and quality increases. "We are prone to assimilate them to 'related' ones, as if the hunger in Auschwitz were the same as that of someone who has skipped a meal, or as if escape from Treblinka were similar to an esacpe from an ordinary jail."

If you are now living in an affluent democratic society, the book leads you to wonder, "Would I recognize the warning signs? If I were a victim, would I descend into barbarism? If I were not, would I have the courage to speak on their behalf? Would I become a monster?"

Primo Levi's Enduring Considerations of Auschwitz.......2001-11-29

The Drowned and the Saved is the haunting last-word meditation of the late Primo Levi on his Auschwitz camp experience. Describing his 1987 work as a collection of "considerations" rather than distinct memories, the thoughtful Levi nevertheless attempts to maintain--as much as possible--the spirit of the Auschwitz truth inevitably eroded, enhanced, or otherwise altered by the passage of 40 years and the flaws of memory: He writes in the first chapter ("The Memory of the Offense") that this later work is still considerably informed by and in concert with the substantial Holocaust literature of the "submerged" (i.e, the perished) and the "saved" that has accumulated since the publication of his 1947 memoir Survival in Auschwitz. But Levi writes, the submerged are the true, albeit lost, witnesses. Only imperfect witness of the monstrous Holocaust experience is available from the saved, like himself.

In The Drowned and the Saved, Levi provides a discerning and articulate exposition of the psychological and sociological peculiarities of the Auschwitz camp--ideas virtually unexplored in popular literature and movies. Throughout the work, he discusses the collective responsibility of nonvictims (in his view, the entire German population) and of the moral dilemmas that arose in a horribly victimized, imprisoned community that was wildly pluralistic (in nationality, language, religion, education, trade, and individual personality). (Tensions between the disparate concepts of collective and individual responsibilities are mostly implicitly explored and not fully crystallized, however, by the author.) Levi explains the complex hierarchy and moral "gray zone" among Auschwitz prisoners who severely compromised humanitarian considerations for fellow inmates and supported the camp's illogical infrastructure to improve survival. Deep anguish befell the unfortunate intellectual who attempted to make sense of his utterly nonsensical existence.

In "Shame," "Communicating," and "Useless Violence," Levi expatiates the Nazi perpetration of its systematic dehumanization, from the moment of transport to complete demoralization entrenched shortly after arrival. The explanation is necessary for the contemporary reader to understand later the feelings of absurdity (or even offense) aroused in the Auschwitz survivor when faced with the external world's disbelief that escape and revolt were not often thought of, much less attempted. In Auschwitz, escape and revolt did occur, to be sure, but infrequently and more often among the better fed and less severely victimized prisoners who were multilingual (most were imprisoned in a foreign country). And failed attempts were invariably countered by the SS's extremely public and vicious brands of individual and general punishment.

Levi concludes his reflective work by presenting selected letters from ignorant and/or apologetic Germans after publication of his 1947 memoir (which the reader is advised to read beforehand). Finally Levi warns of the repetition of a kind of Auschwitz, if the core memory of it and the German responsibility for it are not maintained. But even Levi's reflective considerations of this peculiar historical hell are difficult, if not impossible, for the contemporary reader without direct connection to the Holocaust to know fully or hold onto. Periodic re-reading of Levi's writing is therefore recommended.

extraordinary book, but with two crucial flaws.......2001-07-27

Primo Levi is an extraordinary writer and thinker. His writing is elegant, his language precise. And the distinctions he makes throughout the book, differentiating between types of violence, for example, are vital and sharp. There is much that I loved about this book. The two crucial flaws I see, and these are all the worse considering his precision elsewhere, are a very dangerous anthropocentrism and a just as dangerous ethnocentrism. So far as the former, he consistently speaks of the Jews and others in the camps being treated as "animals." He doesn't see the irony of having been labeled a subhuman, and thus one who may be (according to the master race) slaughtered, and then using "animals" as a pejorative. Given that our culture is killing the planet because we perceive all nonhumans as "subhumans," this blindness on his part is dangerous. I probably could have forgiven him this had it been alone, but his ethnocentrism was really appalling. He consistently paints the Holocaust as Unique with a capital U, somehow underplaying the at least one hundred million Africans killed in the slave trade, the tens of millions of indigenous peoples killed in North America, the indigenous peoples being killed today because they're in the way of the "lebensraum" our culture wants, in fact the genocide that characterizes industrial civlization (for a thorough exploration of this, see anything by Ward Churchill, Lewis Mumford's Myth of the Machine, or Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust). He mentions these other genocides, and seems to give them their due, but then a page later will somehow elevate the Holocaust above them. The ethnocentricity manifests in other ways, too. For example, he talks about how shameful it was to be stripped naked when they first arrived at the camps. He paints this picture vividly and horrifyingly. He should have stopped there, because in his analysis he says things like "Anyone who does not have [clothes] no longer perceives himself as a human being but rather as a worm: naked, slow, ignoble, prone on the ground." Well, no. Many cultures of indigenous peoples have had traditions where clothes meant little. His categorization would seem to include these indigenous peoples as "worms," or, once again, subhumans. If you can overlook these deep flaws, you can still learn much from this beautifully-written book.

Average customer rating:

Mandatory in the best way
Heart-breaking but informative and important
If this is a man; and The Truce
illuminating

If This Is a Man and The Truce
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Abacus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Drowned and the Saved

ASIN: 0349100136

Customer Reviews:

Mandatory in the best way.......2007-05-17

It's been a while since I read this book. My girlfriend pulled it off my shelf of her own accord, and she's reading it now. It's one of those books that every thinking person should read. Other reviewers have conveyed its gist very well. It's not really like other Holocaust literature, as important as that school is. It's more concerned with the capability of human beings to absolutely degrade one another. Auschwitz is a stewpot in which the worst of human nature bubbles to the top and sets the bar.

One would think the average camp prisoner would have put his head down numbly and hoped to get out alive. Levi somehow was able to observe and work through the ramifications of nearly every aspect of camp life, not with numbness, but with serene clarity (at least as he writes it later). Everything related in this book is literal and symbolic, mundane and profound, degraded yet fundamental. Levi doesn't spare himself, either. As he put it, to die in Auschwitz, all one had to do was play by the rules. He cheated, stole, and turned his back on his fellows in order to stay alive, and no fellow prisoner who knew the rules of Auschwitz would have held it against him. So much for uniting against one's oppressors.

I should add that "The Truce" tells the story of Levi's very circuitous journey home from Poland to Italy, through a post-war Europe that was barely functional on any level. It is less bleak by far than "If This Is A Man", but the insights into human nature are similiarly profound and essential.

Heart-breaking but informative and important.......2005-04-07

A truly amazing book - I cannot promise that you will enjoy it, in fact I can almost guarantee that you will find most of it heart-breaking and painful.

It is a little like watching Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing - on many levels you do not enjoy it but it enthrals you. The subject matter is so important and it is so beautifully made and eloquent that you feel compelled to watch (or read in the case of Levi).

Levi tells the story of his own internment in Auschwitz - he concentrates on the details of everyday life slowing building a vivid picture of how the Nazis were intent on not just killing them but breaking their spirit, humiliating them, degrading them. He captures many moments so well that they live on in the mind, for example when he describes how the terrible regime made Jew turn on Jew. He even manages to raise a guilty smile occasionally. For example, he describes the second worst thing that could happen at night was to take out the toilet bucket as it was always full to overflowing and would spill on your feet. The worst thing was when your bunkmate took it out as they shared bunks sleeping head to toe.

Levi is a fantastic writer (try the Periodic Table if you want to read something easier and more enjoyable) with a light touch. He describes his time in Auschwitz calmly, clearly, with great compassion but remarkably objectively; he gives the reader space to think and understand.

A work of heart-breaking genius

If this is a man; and The Truce.......2005-02-03

Primo Levi is the most insightful, pragmatic realist of all holocaust authors. I have read more than 50 books on the subject, and his insights into what happened, human nature, the (bad) luck of the draw, and the tragedy of his experience are brilliant and by far the most articulate. Somehow, perhaps with his scientific mind, Levi was able to maintain his awareness through an experience that is utterly beyond the scope of imagination. He somehow emerges from the ashes of this horrific epoch like a literary phoenix. He doesn't dwell on the inhuman acts and suffering, although he has a perfect right to do so, but instead offers his account almost from an omniscient perspective. This book contains the best of Primo Levi, but his other writings demand to be read as well. And, if you haven't seen The Truce, starring John Turturro, you should do so. It's not a hundred percent historically accurate, but it is a great presentation.

illuminating.......2004-06-18

Primo Levi's "If This is a Man" and "The Truce" remain one of the most horrifyingly realistic depictions of life in Auschwitz. Primo Levi recounts the daily ordeals of life in Auschwitz with a stirring and poignant narration, concentrating on not only the physical and emotional hardship but on another level questioning plainly what it is to be human. Both books present an illuminating view into life in a prison camp, and Primo Levi's narration ensure that no suffering remains untold. An illuminating read.

The Search For Roots: A Personal Anthology

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The Search For Roots: A Personal Anthology
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1566634458

Book Description

It is not my job to explain why...the reader who wishes can enter the passage and cast an eye on the ecosystem that lodges unsuspected in my depths, saprophytes, birds of day and night, creepers, butterflies, crickets, and fungi. Primo Levi emerged not only as one of the most profound and haunting commentators on the Holocaust but also as a great writer on many twentieth-century themes. Here is an anthology of writings that he considered to be essential reading. As Peter Forbes says in his Introduction, In the context of the twenty-first century, all of Levi's choices are striking; they exhibit a kind of chastened curiosity rare in our time, and an undiminished sense of wonder and horror at a universe that has such things in it. Most of the pieces, as Levi comments, reflect the fundamental dichotomies that face us all. Many have their roots in Levi's experience of Auschwitz, and in their startling juxtaposition they give the impression of a world turned upside down. One of the most important Italian writers. --Umberto Eco

Moments of Reprieve: A Memoir of Auschwitz (Twentieth Century Classics)

Average customer rating:

Slight but beautiful
Once again a wonderful experience.
humanizes Holocaust victims
discover this book!!!

Moments of Reprieve: A Memoir of Auschwitz (Twentieth Century Classics)
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140188959

Customer Reviews:

Slight but beautiful.......2007-01-24

This book is lovely, but it is worth pointing out that it revisits characters that Levi has written in about in his previous memoirs, and is much more satisfying as an appendix than a freestanding work. The chapters on Cesare and Lorenzo gain a great deal of depth if one has already read If This Is a Man and The Truce, where the two are major characters. (These two books have unfortunately been re-titled in America, with complete inaccuracy and for mysterious reasons, Survival in Auschwitz and The Reawakening.)

Also, unlike The Periodic Table, which is also a collection of stories (and I think one of the best books of the 20th century), Moments of Reprieve is not designed to be a unified work of art. The stories were written under a variety of impulses, and most are individually brilliant and moving, but they do not gain strength from being around each other. The last chapter ("The Story of a Coin") about Rumkowski, even appears again -- with no changes as far as I could tell -- in The Drowned and the Saved, Levi's last completed book.

For anyone wanting to discover Levi's writing, I would suggest beginning with The Periodic Table, If This is a Man, and The Truce. Also wonderful are his single novel (If Not Now, When?) and his poetry. This collection, while not essential, serves as a worthy addition to his greatest work. It is also a testament to his artistry, because it shows how much he consciously left out of If This is a Man and The Truce -- stories that a lesser writer would have scrambled to include -- to create the unified, devastating impression of those two books.

Eventually, though, after reading those other great books, you will end up here, because I know of no one who has read them sincerely that has not wanted to spend more time in the company of this smart, funny, wise, and radiantly decent person.

Once again a wonderful experience........2005-09-15

I enjoy being older and having time to pursue the books I would like to read rather than have to read. I only discovered Primo Levi by seeing his name mentioned in reference to another author. And to think I might have missed this man's talent out of pure ignorance. What a shame there aren't many more of his works available, cut off by his depression and taking his life. Book quality excellent. Content of Levi's story exquisite.

humanizes Holocaust victims.......2004-08-24

This little memoir humanizes Levi's Auschwitz acquaintances, presenting them not merely as victims sitting around waiting to be gassed, but as lively, interesting people engaged in the full-time business of getting enough food to survive.

discover this book!!!.......2004-08-07

it was recommended by a good friend of mine to read a certain book by this author. i couldn't get my hands on the book recommended, but i decided to try this one at random. i was not disappointed. i thought this book was excellent. it is full of short stories about several people who levi remembers from his time in auschwitz. it is not a heavy book about the holocaust, it is a collection of interesting stories about people who briefly touched his life in some way. his voice and his style are unique, and his stories are thoughtful and intriguing. i feel like i've seen a glimpse of his personality and the personalities of the characters he has written about. i have since read the sixth day; quite a stretch from this one, but just as beautiful. i highly recommend both.

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An Important and Entertaining Memoir
A Great Work
Carnival World
Troubles overcome are good to tell
An amazing journey with Primo Levi

The Reawakening
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684826356

Customer Reviews:

An Important and Entertaining Memoir.......2004-02-01

The Reawakening opens in January 1945, when author Primo Levi is released from a Nazi concnetration camp by Russian troops. His health almost ruined, suffering from unbearable knowledge of the crimes committed in the camps, Levi re-enters the world to find that it has been turned upside down by the war. Improbably - he explains in an afterword that it is not in his nature to hate - he finds in himself a capacity to see the world afresh, almost as a child would.

In the rest of the book, we accompany Levi and his companions on a picaresque through postwar Europe and Russia as they try to make their way back to their native Italy. While their sufferings are legion, Levi takes great pleasure in food, in his fellow man, and in nature. In particular, he displays a fine appreciation for the absurdities visited on the refugees by their well-intentioned but inept Russian rescuers.

This book is an entertaining read. Beyond that, it is an important document of the Holocaust. And beyond that, it is an important resource for modern readers who are finding their own way through an often absurd world. Highly recommended.

A Great Work.......2001-12-07

This is just one of the many brilliant writings of Primo Levi but it tells a tale of Holocaust survival that is often overlooked. Most narratives seem to end at liberation and this one gives us a detailed view of what happened afterwards. This is the book that the movie "The Truce" (which is also the title of this book in Italy)is loosely based on. I don't think the movie did the book justice at all and so I would especially recommend this book to anyone that has seen the movie. Like all of Levi's works it is written in a sparse yet fantastic style and it really is a great follow up to "Survival In Auschwitz".

Carnival World.......2001-01-14

Like Survival in Auschwitz and The Periodic Table, The Reawakening is populated with Levi's brilliant language and fascination with character. In Survival, Table and Reawakening, Levi is careful not to force facts into a satisfyingly explanatory story. The Reawakening is a picaresque without the moral center. Levi travels home through a carnival world, a Europe simultaneously stunned and ecstatic, a landscape of displaced characters, Greek villagers in Polish refugee camps, complicit Germans sitting down to the first course of horrific recent history and guilt, cadaverous lager inmates staggering into a world forever altered. It is a world populated with impresarios, rakes, opportunists, suicides, daredevils and rubes. But, more than anything else, The Reawakening is brimming with life; Levi makes his way home eyes forward.

I found myself thinking of two other books while reading Reawakening--Kosinski's The Painted Bird and Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel. Like Kosinski, Levi reminds us that much of rural eastern Europe was cruel and primitive before the Nazi's made a virtue of these qualities. And, like Wolfe's Gant family, the characters in Levi's account are often exuberant to the point of mania.

I think that Levi is one of the great writers and thinkers of our time. In this way, I'm not a reliable critic. Reviewing The Reawakening is akin to reviewing Hamlet for me.

Troubles overcome are good to tell.......2000-11-14

Published in 1963, "The Reawakening" is a narrative of Primo Levi's tortuous journey back to Turin after liberation from Auschwitz. In fact, it is a follow-up of "Survival in Auschwitz." As stated by Primo Levi, "after Auschwitz, I had an absolute need to write, not only as a moral duty, but as psychological need, to free myself from anguish." Out of 650 Italian Jews who journeyed to Auschwitz, with Primo Levi, only 20 left the camp alive.

Levi assumes the calm, sober language of the witness, with no manifested hate and purpose of revenge, devoid of bitterness. His prose is precise, clear, with no embellishment, lively transmitting his bewilderment of the simple fact that he had survived.

The reader cannot help be amazed by the details recorded in Levi's memory, places, names, characters, personalities, it is as though he wrote everything in locus. His memory was a blessing... but might have also been his tormenter... After a long period of depression, Levi died after falling from a stairwell in his Turin home. The question will always remain whether it was or not suicide. Levi, through his writings, symbolizes the triumph of reasoning and humanity over madness and cruelty.

An amazing journey with Primo Levi.......2000-09-05

An really good book. I read it immediately after his previous book (Survival in Auschwitz : The Nazi Assault on Humanity) and where the first one is extremely sad and depressing this second one is an incredible insight into the mixture of characters that Levi encounters on his way back from Auschwitz. Although set in a completely ruined Eastern Europe I found the book positive and intriguing to read. His friends the Greek, Cesare, il Moro etc. are all amazing characters to read about and his whole journey through the Russian bureaucracy is just as fascinating to experience as well.

The Monkey's Wrench (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

Average customer rating:

Wise, moving, shame about the title
Gracefully narrated stories of a tradesman's jobs and values
INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH DELIGHT
Witty, Poingnant, Haunting Barely Begin to Describe Levi
A ghastly book: poorly written, dull, pointless

The Monkey's Wrench (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140188924

Customer Reviews:

Wise, moving, shame about the title.......2006-04-14

I finished this book and read it all the way through again less than a month later. There are lots of things to like about it. Mainly, though, I like it because it conveys a sense of joy in work, in writing, in the less spectacular aspects of life that can be as much a source of happiness as can the great gifts that come along once or twice in a lifetime. And the stories are told in such an engaging way you don't really realize Levi is showing you a way to make life bearable. The sad thing is that Primo Levi apparently couldn't do for himself what he did for so many of his readers.

I also like that though a good part of the novel takes place in the former Soviet Union, Levi, with the exception of one chapter in the book, says nary a word about communism. The Soviet regime is, for the purpose of his book, completely irrelevant. Lesser writers would have stuck to the "one-man-against-the-regime" template.

That said, I do have some gripes, mostly to do with the translation. Levi has been very badly served either by his translators or, more likely, by his American publishers. Why this book was called _The Monkey's Wrench_ is beyond me. There's a wrench, and there's a monkey all right, but there's nothing so patently ridiculous as a wrench belonging to a monkey. _The Wrench_, plain and simple, like Levi's prose, would have sufficed.

Gracefully narrated stories of a tradesman's jobs and values.......2003-12-10

Meet Faussone, an able tradesmen who sets up cranes around the world and enjoys his work. Most of the several short stories in the book centre on him recounting some interesting job he's been involved in.

Rather than remain invisible and let 'Faussone' do all the talking, the listener/narrator is also allowed to take on a role - the stories are clearly placed in a setting of Faussone talking to the semi-autobiographical persona of Levi. We learn a little of why he's putting down these stories, his own speculation on whether writing is a worthy 'craft' compared to that of the tradesman, and he even drops in a work story of his own (as a chemist - Levi himself was a chemist) to conclude. Levi highlights the importance of the listener and the context to the stories, which, while entertaining enough to stand on their own, are enhanced by tangents of setting and response. Moreover there's room for just a little plot and relationship development winding alongside the stories.

As close as I can think of are the James Herriot stories, although I suspect some of Levi's fans would be a bit horrified at the comparison. That being said, I suspect 'Herriot' himself would have enjoyed the book. Levi's stories, however, are not nearly as formulaic (or as funny), and Levi is a more able painter of characters that feel more authentic, and don't necessarily need to be pigeon-holed. Amusing that Faussone feels more authentic than some of Herriot's doubtless 'real' recollected characters: in a postscript Levi says,
"Faussone is imaginary but "perfectly authentic," at the same time; he is a compound, a mosaic of numerous men I have met, similar to Faussone..."

There's a grace there as well - which some would find bland - this isn't sensationalist fiction with a sting or a belly laugh. Levi does have an agenda - to suggest that a worker who takes pride and pleasure in his trade is as good a subject (and hero) for a novel as any super spy or renegade cop or tortured academic or whatever. There's also an acknowledgement of giving some praise to Levi and Faussone's fathers in this, so perhaps he can be forgiven if his picture is a bit eulogistic.

The 'wrench' (if the translation got this right) isn't just a symbol of blue collar labour, it's also the wrench between the metaphysical profession of writing books and that of actually making tangible things. The 'Levi' of the stories is struggling with this, and Faussone's parting advice to him is:
"...I tell you, doing things you can touch with your hands has an advantage: you can make comparisons and understand how much you are worth. You make a mistake, you correct it, and next time you don't make it..."
and earlier 'Levi' speculated that perhaps so many writers have bad stress because they can't test their work with a level or a gauge, and are working blind half the time.

So, if you're in the mood for something reflective, diverting, and well written - go ahead. If you're after some action or melodrama, wait for another mood.

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH DELIGHT.......2002-03-01

Excellent series of vignettes/stories generally related within the novel by a crane/derrick rigger to the author, a chemist. For those with no inclination to industrial engineering and chemistry, this book makes the two subjects seem interesting, and uniquely identifies them with the human condition. Quite beautiful.

Witty, Poingnant, Haunting Barely Begin to Describe Levi.......2000-09-20

There are some people who you can never hear enough of. Levi is certainly one of those. He combines one of the greates talents as a writer in this century with a wisdom uncommon for any age.

This book is not an adventure story in the typical sence of the word, but reading it is an adventure, and I for one am a better man for having opened its covers.

I don't think that Levi has ever written a book that I would only read once. This book, I look forward to revisting many times over. The maximum length of this review is one thousnd words. If all those words were supperlatives, I would not come close to doing this book justice.

A ghastly book: poorly written, dull, pointless.......1999-09-02

What could be more attracitve? Here's a book about travel in countries all over the globe, and it's made up of conversations between two practical men of the world. A theme--engineers construct things, authors construct stories--ties the chapters together.

A great idea, but, alas, one that has been turned into a dreadful book. We're warned in the very beginning that the speaker might, at times, be a bit imperfect: repetetive, full of himself, prone to get lost in details. But the first chapter shows him, despite these short-comings, to be fascinating. Nonetheless, in the chapters that follow, he turns out to be every bit as insufferable as we'd been told in that first page.

Each chapter is filled with mind-numbing details of construction projects, only relieved, at times, with brief passages that are more interesting. Levi's book does justice neither to world travel nor to Italian literature.

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