Primo Levi enthusiasts: This is a re-issue of 'If this is a man'

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	• Survival In Auschwitz Primo Levi Touchstone, 1996 - 187 pages average customer review:based on 71 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Primo Levi enthusiasts: This is a re-issue of 'If this is a man'

It's a great book. But if you've already got 'If this is a man', don't buy this.

A Clinical Look at Auschwitz

There are reasons why it is difficult to review a book like this. First, it is a translation so it is hard to tell whether problems with prose belong to the author or the translator. Second, it is a Holocaust memoir which means criticizing it feels like criticizing the author's experiences. And yet, if we are going to do justice to any piece of writing, a reader has to be willing to be honest about his reactions to it. My reaction is simple: I think this is a good piece of writing but not a great one.

Despite it's brevity, I found this a very difficult book to get through. I wanted very much to be moved by Levi's experiences but it wasn't until the final section, "The Story of Ten Days," that I really felt emotion--that I connected to the author's fight for survival. Most of the time I felt detached because the writing felt very clinical to me. Unlike Elie Weisel's Night, for example, a memoir I've read many times, which grabs me from the first page and doesn't let go.

This is not to discount the horror of Auschwitz's nor Levi's obvious suffering. I guess it's just that, strange as it may sound, I want to be drawn into the author's horror and share his plight. I rarely had that feeling here. However, there is no doubt that this book offers a unique insight into the Auschwitz experience and cannot be discounted. Anyone interested in trying to understand the insanity that was the Holocaust needs to read it.

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Excellent

Usually in deep dark corners of the world that rarely get exposed can you get a good look at the depths of humanity. This book is one of those experiences. That must be why I am so fascinated by WWII, especially the Holocaust and the Eastern Front. I am always on the look-out for stories like this; as a student of WWII and psychology, I highly enjoyed and cherish this book.

Survival

This book is a shocking, riviting account of one man's survival in Auschwitz. The mere fact that he managed to survive in the most inhumane circumstances and the author's ability to convey in great clarity the horrific circumstances that he survived, is a miracle in itself. This brings to mind the atrocities of that time and reminds us to never let it happen again. This book is inspiring.

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Brutual & Clinical Look of Survival

I stopped reading books of the Holocaust several years ago simply because the stories that come out of the Holocaust are heart-wrenching, bitter, courgaeous, guilt-ridden .... all of the emotions and thoughts that we human have produced can be a lot to digest at one time.

I was at my parents' house when I saw this book lying on the coffee table. It was a book lent to my dad by his secretary's daughter, who just finished a course on the Holocaust and this was one of the required readings. I picked it up and from the preface, I was hooked by the author's precise and thoughtful wording. It is not an emotional book ~~ it is a book about survival. It is an observation of the "Lager," where Levi was held in. It was a clinical look as well ~~ it was his way of surviving and denying his humanness. It is definitely not an emotional rehashing of his time in the concentration camps, especially at Auschwitz, which is the worst of them all. I also get the feeling that he sometimes has an air of disbelief around him, like it's not really happening ~~ it's a nightmare that he never could wake up from.

I would rate it a Five Star but I don't love this book. I thoroughly appreciate the discourse Levi has shared with us. It is a look from a survior who didn't color it with his emotions ~~ yes, it happened and this is what happened. It wasn't till the very end of this book where he described the ten days in the infirmary after the 20,000 "healthy" prisoners were marched into oblivion with the Germans, that he showed any emotion. It was then he allowed himself to be a man again, instead of a "Halfinge" ~~ a slave. He never put his survival to fate or to a higher being. He put it to luck. He was lucky to be sick at the right time. And he was.

5-28-06

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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