I read this book as an undergrad in Provo. I remember after reading Survival in Auschwitz wanting to read everything I could find by Levi. I read this and wasn't initially wowed by it, but as time passed and I revisited the stories, my appreciation really grew. The book is structurally very clever, with several chapters named after various elements, and in each of the chapters Levi tells a story that centers around or involves that element in some essential way. The most humane chemistry book I have ever read (not that there's really much competition, but all the same). ( )

This book is partly memoir, partly fiction, with each chapter entitled for an element from the periodic table. The element may introduce a reminiscence, or be the subject of a short fantasy. The author earned his doctorate in chemistry, and earned his living as an industrial chemist, working in a number of different jobs. He finished his doctorate in Mussolini's Italy in about 1942. He joined the partisans when the Germans moved into Italy, but was captured, and, being a Jew, sent to Auschwitz. He identified himself as a chemist, and was put to work in a nearby synthetic rubber factory, narrowly avoiding the death march that ended the lives of most of the remaining survivors when the Russians moved in. He has two other books about that time of his life, and there is only a few bits of that history in this book. The writing was elegant, absorbing, and witty, and some of the early chapters on his relatives in the Piedmont were hilarious. I read this while on airplanes and travel with Joe to colleges. ( )

Liked how each chapter represented an element and the story within the chapter would relate to the element somehow. True stories of an Italian Jews experience during WW2 and how the Nazis used scientists like him. ( )

i got somewhat addicted to this book. I LOVE WHAT I DO IN LIFE (software engineer). but sometimes when it seems a little bit of routine breaking in i need some encouragement. and in this levi's work i find bundles of it. he loves his work, and he infects me with his love for work. work as a purpose in life. no shame in that.

Told by an Italian chemist before, during, and after World War II, each chapter of this remarkable tale bears the title of the name of an element from the periodic table of chemistry. And each chapter also explores a memory that relates in some way to that element. ( )