The chemical life of an Italian Jew
American Dava Sobel is a well-known writer. He has published scientific outreach books and has been writing articles and columns for many years (interview on page 18). In the previous issues we have recommended two of his books, The Planets and Longitude, and for the current number we ask you to recommend other interesting books. "Have you read in the Uncle Tungsten by writer Oliver Sacks?" We told him yes, precisely this book (Uncle Tungsten) was recommended in the February magazine.
Another recommendation from Sobel is the book "Il sistema periódico", by the Italian Primo Levi.
"It's a wonderful book. Primo Levi was an Italian Jew. Chemical. Each chapter of the book bears the name of an element, but it is actually an account of his life. And how he was interested in chemistry when he was a child. Levi had the keys to a friend's lab and entered it to experiment."
In some chapters, the relationship between the element and the story is created by Levi himself; in the first chapter, for example, he speaks of the Jewish origin of the family, and compares his uncles to the noble gases (to almost any acquaintance close to the family they called uncles). In other chapters, the story itself is related to the elements, since it collects the anecdotes lived in the laboratories.
Besides chemistry, the story offers a lot. "Much of the book is dedicated to World War II," says Sobel. "He was a prisoner of war. He was in Auschwitz, where he survived. And later he committed suicide. He had a tragic life. And he was a great writer."
In the chapter on iron, for example, Levi talks about his friendship with his friend Sandro. He was classmate and close friend, killed in 1944 by a shot and the murderer was a fifteen-year-old boy.
Two chapters are fiction stories titled Titanium and Sulfur. He wrote the two to a few years after the end of the war (around 1950) and received them twenty-five years later to include them in this book.
Many critics claim the book is hard but worth reading. And Dava Sobel herself stands out. But, having said this, he repeated what he told us at the beginning: "It's a wonderful book."
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