Primo Levi: The Tragedy of an Optimist
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.65 (547 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0879518065 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 608 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-09-19 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Levi believed writers should be concise and clear, avoiding embellishments and convolutions, and that's exactly what Anissimov has accomplished. In 1987, the literary world was shocked when the Italian writer and chemist Primo Levi died after falling down the stairs in the very home where he had been born 78 years earlier. The reason his death caused such surprise was the widely held suspicion that it was suicide--Levi, a man who had lived through 18 tortured months in Auschwitz, was known as a survivor. She also consulted archives and interviewed Levi's colleagues and friends. . Once, pointing to the number tattooed on his arm, he said, "That is my disease." His tombstone in Turin bears his name; his dates of birth and death; and his number, 174517. After reading this 450-page book
Primo Levi is represented in this world almost entirely by his writings, and his public self--shy, intelligent, diffident--has long hidden the true Levi. This major biography delves deeply into the life and mind of the controversial writer, philosopher, and Holocaust witness, exploring the complex nature of a man who felt misunderstood, certain that future generations would inevitably forget and even deny the Holocaust.
"Very useful companion to Levi's works" according to Ian Muldoon. Readers of Levi's works will find this bio complements the works. Entering Auschwitz in his early twenties - on the brink of life itself, love, work, education, friendship - young Primo through his works of literature, his school visits, his articles, his interviews, bore witness to the efficient workings of the German business and military machine as it worked its way through mur. ""The aims of life are the best defense against death." Levi" according to Jana L.Perskie. Until Myriam Anissimov published this comprehensive biography of Primo Levi in 1998, the world knew him primarily through his own writings. He was born into an assimilated middle-class Jewish family in Turin, Italy, in 1919. His people were not observant Jews, and Levi, apparently, knew little about "Jewishness" until Mussolini's anti-Semitic policy taught him something about his . Spotty insights but helpful contexts As many reviewers have noted, this English translation whittles down the original French two-volume work, so perhaps an English-language reader's perspective is likewise narrowed; perhaps the publisher and translator of the English version are also responsible for the admittedly scattershot coverage given by Anissimov to Primo Levi's inner complexity. Again, Levi was certainly not