The PeriodicTable (1975, this edition 2010) is part autobiographical and part short stories
based around the periodic table in chemistry. The Royal Institution of Great
Britain called it the best science book ever written.
There are 21
elements of the Mendeleev periodic table, from argon to carbon, ordered on the
basis of their atomic number, electrons, and chemical properties. Levi (1919 to
his suspected suicide in 1987) pens each of the 21 stories around his life,
from schooling to university to his work as a chemist, the Fascist regime to
his year in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and from an industrial chemist to
an author.
Born in Turin, as
an Italian-Jew, Levi commences his book with Argon, at 16 years old, describing
his ancestry. Levi picks up pace in the second chapter, Hydrogen, in which he,
and his friend Enrico, study chemistry – and are fascinated with red-hot tubes
of glass and the electrolysis of water (a chemical compound with two hydrogen
atoms). In Zinc, Levi is at university preparing zinc sulphate. Here he begins
to be intrigued by women, namely Rita “thin, pale and sad.” By Iron, he is
conducting a qualitative analysis of iron at 21 years of age with his friend
Sandro, the first man to be killed fighting in the Resistance in April 1944
when captured by the Fascists.
In the chapter,
Potassium, Levi learns that a half-pea size of potassium “in contact with
water, it not only developes hydrogen but also ignites.” In Nickel he gains his
degree in chemistry in July 1941, and begins working on quantitative analyses
of rocks. Now his theoretical knowledge of chemistry – “a bookish dogma” –
comes alive with practical usefulness. This time the girl in the laboratory is
Alida. Two tales on Lead and Mercury were written when Levi was younger and are
included here before Phosporus. Now it is June 1942 and Levi moves to Milan to
work in another chemistry lab with “cornflowers, phosporus and rabbits.” He had
never touched an animal before, except for a country cat. Here he really likes
his colleague Giulia.
In the middle of
the book is Gold, the period of imprisonment at Auschwitz from December 13,
1943 when Fascists surrounded eleven workers; eight escaped and three were
captured: Aldo, Guido, and Primo. He was incarcerated in a cell until they
found out that he was a scientist. Gold refers to the rich Dora water basin
where it joins the Po River at Turin.
In the chapter,
Cerium, my favourite, is the mysterious discovery of lighter flint. He steals
40 rods, each worth a loaf of bread (the equivalent of “one day of life”). By
1945, and free, Chromium describes his life as an unoccupied chemist when he started
writing – first poetry, then a book [If
this is a Man published in 1947, called Survival at Auschwitz in the USA,
published in 1958]. He is offered a job analyzing chromate and alkyd resin in
anti-rust paint when he meets a woman, “not for one meeting but for life” – Lucia.
Sulfur is about
Lanza and the furnace, whereas Titanium – one of the best chapters – explores
Levi’s every day life. Other great chapters include Arsenic (the tale of a
cobbler who comes to the chemistry lab requesting an analysis of some sugar),
and Nitrogen in which another customer, a lipstick manufacturer trying to
replicate “an excellent French product” requests assistance in remedying the
“bleeding/running” of his lipstick. The answer is nitrogen (bird and reptile
excrement) found in alloxan. Tin is about the laboratory in Levi’s friend’s
home, while Uranium is when he becomes a Customer Service representative to
increase business – and is asked to analyze a sample the customer maintains is
uranium, but isn’t. Silver is the 25th anniversary of his graduation
from college in 1966 – the silver wedding to chemistry. In Vanadium Levi tracks
down a German chemist and a sample of vanadium naphthenate. Carbon, the last
chapter, is the history of the carbon atom.
Although Levi
covers religious, political, and scientific issues, The Periodic Table has
light and shade, comedy and tragedy, love and loss, and everything in between. It
is not a macabre, negative depressing read. Far from it! It was science and chemistry
that saved him in Auschwitz – as well as his youthful strength, his knowledge
of the German language, his sense of humility, and his humour.
Levi has a
beautiful and elegant prose style with its strength in character descriptions.
His sense of observation is magnificent and highly detailed. Chronologically the
novel flows nicely. The first and last chapters are the weakest links, but all
else is brilliant. I think the Royal Institution of Great Britain is right.
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