Friends, today I’m going to tell you about a book that will light up little bulbs in your head and make you say, “Wow!” when you read it. It’s Primo Levi’s “The Periodic Table“. As the name suggests, chemical elements are involved. Don’t say, “Oh no, are we going to listen to a chemistry lesson now?” because the whole thing is on a completely different level.
The Chemist and His Elements
Primo Levi was a chemist. And not just any ordinary chemist, but like a magician who tells his life story through the language of elements. The book consists of twenty-one short stories, each bearing the name of a chemical element. But this is just a guise. In fact, it’s an autobiographical work that offers pieces from Primo Levi’s own life. He talks about his childhood, young loves, the beginning of his professional life, and his experiences during and after a challenging period when he was imprisoned.
Primo Levi was an Italian chemist and writer. Born in Turin in 1919, he studied chemistry at the University of Turin, graduating in 1941. During World War II, Primo Levi joined the Italian resistance but was captured by Fascist forces in 1943. Because he was Jewish, he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, where he endured ten harrowing months before being liberated by the Soviet army. He was one of only 20 out of 650 Italian Jews imprisoned at Auschwitz who survived. His training as a chemist helped him survive the terrible conditions, as he was selected for work in a laboratory. After the war, Primo Levi returned to Turin and resumed work as a chemist, while also beginning to write about his experiences.
This book, The Periodic Table, does not delve deeply into his concentration camp period, as Primo Levi discusses it in other books like If This Is a Man (also known as Survival in Auschwitz) and The Truce. This choice means the book focuses more on his life afterward. So, even if it seems like a gap in the periodic table, it’s actually a deliberate choice to focus on specific elements of his life.
So what’s the deal with these elements? This is where it gets really interesting! Primo Levi takes the characteristics of each element and uses them as a metaphor for events in his life, for people, and sometimes even for his own character. For example, the book opens with Argon. These noble gases reflect the quiet, “on the sidelines”, intellectual spirit of the author’s ancestors. Although they were materially active, they were internally calm and inclined to disinterested speculation. Imagine, telling your family history through an element. Isn’t that incredible?
The Philosophy of Impurity
But for me, the heart of the book, the “wow!” moment, came from its philosophical depths. Especially the Zinc chapter. To be honest, Zinc doesn’t seem like a very exciting element, even a bit boring. But as Primo Levi points out, pure Zinc is surprisingly resistant to acids. However, when a little “impurity” is added, it starts to react, to mix with life!. Isn’t life like that too? Being perfect, smooth, “pure” isn’t always good. The real magic is hidden in those small differences, in those “impurities,” in those mixtures. Without this diversity, this dissent, this “grain of salt and mustard,” life wouldn’t turn, wouldn’t be fertile. This was practically a manifesto: about embracing differences, not ignoring them. This concept of impurity extends to his commentary on Fascism, which aimed for racial “purity” and regarded other races, particularly Jews, as adulterations to be eliminated. Primo Levi argues that the universe does not consist solely of one element, and diversity is essential. Because life itself is chemistry, full of endless reactions and mixtures. This was a game-changer for me; it completely shifted my perspective on life.
Narrative Journeys Beyond Life
The book doesn’t just contain slices of Primo Levi’s own life; sometimes, the author delves into fantastic, fairy-tale-like stories. For example, chapters like Lead or Mercury. While some readers found these fictional stories less engaging, each aims to capture the “mythical” quality of the elements.
And of course, the Vanadium chapter. In this section, years after his imprisonment, Primo Levi corresponds with a German supervisor, Doktor Muller, whom he met while working in the laboratory at Auschwitz. He describes with such subtlety how complex human emotions, memory, the struggle to make sense, and perhaps even the search for forgiveness are, that it gives you goosebumps. This chapter explores the idea of tolerance for those who committed or permitted evil, provided they are prepared to repent. Emotional reactions swirling within us, just like chemical reactions… Incredible.
A Universe of Carbon
The final chapter, Carbon, is an absolute peak. It tells the millennia-long journey of a single carbon atom through the universe. From a rock to a tree, from there to a dinosaur, then a king, and maybe even an atom in your own body… This isn’t just science fiction; it’s life itself. Primo Levi describes how everything is interconnected, how matter is constantly in motion, creating life, with such poetic language that you feel at one with the universe. Because what matters is matter, that is, “life and reality that makes us breathe, move, and think“.
Primo Levi’s Poetic Lens
What about Primo Levi’s language? It’s intelligent, witty, and deeply humane. While there are chemical details, this is not primarily a science book. It’s more a celebration of humanity, diversity, and life itself. There’s an endless curiosity and desire to “understand” within the author, as if he’s trying to pass everything through chemistry’s rational sieve. The writing is precise, inspired, curious, humorous, and deeply human. His prose is often described as lyrical and seamless.
In short, “The Periodic Table“ is not just a memoir; it’s considered Primo Levi’s crowning achievement and a masterpiece that allows you to see life, humanity, and the universe through a different lens. It’s a journey into the depths of the human spirit and matter through elements. Voted the “best science book ever” by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, it is certainly much more than just a science book. Read it; who knows which element will tell you its own story!
