Customer Reviews

Primo Levi: A Life

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A highly enjoyable book. Thomson paints an extremely detailed picture but does not attempt to create a mythic figure out of Levi. He is presented in 3 dimensions with all his strengths and weaknesses. Extremely rich look at the assimilated Jewish community of Turin suddenly being cast as the enemy of the Fascist state. Highly recommended.

Thomson's work is a wonderful read, well researched with telling detail and written in prose suitable to its subject. You can feel the struggle Primo endures to hack through the Auschwitz experience, his work as a chemist, his fathering,husbanding, literary aspirations and living in cramped circumstances within his mother's home. Highly recommended to the devotee of Levi's fascinating journey and written achievements. The research around the period, particularly the shakers and movers in northern Italian political and cultural life is enthralling with ample evidence from a host of surviving acquaintances. Levi's depressive tendencies are charted. His rise from obscurity to literary fame. His days in the chemical factory..it's all there, weighing in and shaping the artist that he was. Without overstating the issue, Thomson lays out the supreme irony of Levi's career with the Turin chemical industrial firm, its hazards, and his survival route by working with the industrialized death camp at Auschwitz.

I enjoyed this book; however, its content hurt me deeply. After reading this book, I know Mr. Levi suffered with depression. Who wouldn't after being physically, mentally and emotinally violated in a concentration camp. However, I do not believe he wanted his life to end.

Thompson creates a thorough, engaging, and intelligent chronicle of the life and times of Primo Levi. The book not only focuses on every aspect of Primo Levi the man, but all areas of his life, environments and the people who influenced him to create a complete picture of how and why Levi came to be. Highly recommended.

A really wonderful biography on a complex man. Kudos to the author. I'm impressed.

As an autobiography, this read very well. I would recommend it to anyone already interested in Primo Levi