The Periodic Table
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 @ 18:56
by Primo Levi (1975)
Levi is a superb storyteller, with an ability (and delight, admitting himself as belonging to “that species of persons who do things in order to talk about them”) to turn words into engaging stories. The Periodic Table consists of twenty one short stories named after elements, arranged chronologically based on events in Levi’s life, with two short fictions, Lead and Mercury, inserted at the point they were written.
The relation of the story to the title can be anything, but never far-fetched. On the contrary, the musings reflective, the connections crafty: Noble, inert and rare Argon as an allegorical element representing Levi’s Jewish ancestors, a schoolboy experiment with Hydrogen, searching for chicken and python shit (which turns out to be too troublesome and expensive) to “embellish ladies’ lips” (yeah, lipstick).
Insightful, original, oftentimes funny without losing his sad ironies and fondness for details.
