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A review by lakmus
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
5.0
This was one of those books that called to me from the store's shelf, and that I bought entirely on trust, without asking the internet if it's good, or if many people liked it. Once again, the 'trust the gut' method didn't disappoint.
I never cared much for chemistry. It always was a technical nuisance between physics and biology, both of which I found to be immediately exciting and worthy of exploration. Chemistry now joins the 'sciences I like' list, which is already getting a bit too long. Levi has a lot of love for his field and you can tell it. I have zero understanding of the chemical processes he was describing in these stories, but I can tell he finds them fascinating and beautiful and so they seem fascinating and beautiful to me.
I didn't want to read about the camps, I've already read one book too many about the camps (German, Russian, no big difference to me). Levi spared me here, with all the stories really being mostly about people and chemistry, and people viewed through the prism of chemistry, and vice versa.
These stories offered me a lot of valuable perspectives, and I find this somehow comforting and personal. I am looking forward to re-reading this a few years later.
> Side note: And the language seems to seep through to the reader. Love when this happens, although it is strange to have the foreign filter on one's self-expression, it is as if the author is still talking.
I never cared much for chemistry. It always was a technical nuisance between physics and biology, both of which I found to be immediately exciting and worthy of exploration. Chemistry now joins the 'sciences I like' list, which is already getting a bit too long. Levi has a lot of love for his field and you can tell it. I have zero understanding of the chemical processes he was describing in these stories, but I can tell he finds them fascinating and beautiful and so they seem fascinating and beautiful to me.
I didn't want to read about the camps, I've already read one book too many about the camps (German, Russian, no big difference to me). Levi spared me here, with all the stories really being mostly about people and chemistry, and people viewed through the prism of chemistry, and vice versa.
These stories offered me a lot of valuable perspectives, and I find this somehow comforting and personal. I am looking forward to re-reading this a few years later.
> Side note: And the language seems to seep through to the reader. Love when this happens, although it is strange to have the foreign filter on one's self-expression, it is as if the author is still talking.