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Primo Levi: A Biography
 
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Primo Levi: A Biography (Paperback)

by Ian Thomson (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 640 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (6 Feb 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099515210
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099515210
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 308,466 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #60 in  Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Italy

Product Description

Observer

‘One of the best literary biographies of the year…superb…Levi, I think, would have appreciated it’


Clive James, Times Literary Supplement

‘ Thomson writes with snap…brio and a sense of relevance’

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Primo Levi by Ian Thomson, 10 Aug 2003
An impressive and meticulously researched biography which documents the life of a complex being living through no less complex times. The voluminous size of the work belies the deft handling of the information it contains, which is educative yet not didactic in tone. Ian Thompson maintains a respectful distance from his subject, turning an enquiring yet restrained observer’s eye, which at times also manages to be both warm and humorous. This is quite an achievement considering that the biography details Levi’s harrowing experience of Auschwitz, his internal conflicts and painful lack of confidence, increasing episodes of debilitating depression and his overly attached, anxiety provoking relationship with his mother. The author eschews interpretation of these factors with regard to the circumstances of Levi’s depression and eventual suicide and thus the work as a whole retains a literary integrity. A delight to read.

* * * * *

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Readable biography which leaves questions unanswered, 16 Jan 2005
By Budge Burgess (Kilmarnock, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
Ian Thomson brings out the contrasts in Primo Levi's life. On the one hand, we have a simple, unremarkable little Italian, an anonymous individual who spent his working life in the offices and laboratories of a large chemical firm and never escaped from the apartment in which he grew up. His life seems altogether too ordinary. But Levi was also a man who could communicate with insight and passion in a way few others have managed.

Levi's life was spent within the confines of a Turin apartment block; his sole release came in his imprisonment in Auschwitz, one of the Italian Jews rounded up for eradication. His description of this experience, "If this is a man", presents an astonishing account of human bestiality, human survival, and the sheer resilience of humanity. The concentration camp inevitably scarred Levi - he emerged, as did others, consumed with guilt, convinced he had no right to survive.

But survive he did, and his life after the War is one of paralleling roles - as the ordinary little Italian bourgeois and as the international literary figure. He seems to have been unable to handle the conflict - Levi is presented as a fundamentally unprepossessing man, a man who preferred anonymity but was cursed with the ability to capture something of the essence of the human spirit.

Thomson portrays Levi as a man who had learned to value reason and enquiry and reject bigotry and ignorance. He learned this from the anti-Semitism he endured as a youth. He witnessed the extremes in Auschwitz. And he had the experience of his own father's suicide - a sense that reason could snap and give way to depression and despair at any moment.

Levi demonstrated that humanity, that caring for others, valuing and respecting others, is a fundamental of the human condition. Thomson's biography presents a complex yet simple man. It is well researched, well-written, accessible, and gives a dynamic picture of Levi's life. Curiously, it's weakness lies in the handling of Levi's later years.

The picture of Levi's childhood, adolescence and life before and during Auschwitz is clear and engaging, but somehow the biography becomes less lucid when we enter the years of Levi's literary fame. Maybe this says something about the man - once he became famous, he became less accessible to analysis and understanding, perhaps even cutting himself off from himself ... until the day he killed himself in the same place and by the same means as his father.

An engaging and readable biography ... but one which will nevertheless leave you wondering why.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A splendid literary biography, 13 Jul 2003
By Stanley J. Marut (Hampshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I cannot speak highly enough of Ian Thompson's account of the life of Primo Levi. he hasn't missed a detail and his painstaking research is a credit to him. This is an eminently readble account of the life of Levi. Even when he returns from the horrors of Auschwitz the book still retains a momentum that carries through to the next stages of Levis life in Italy. A great, great book. Levi would have been proud to have been so represented.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Vital reading for everyone
Primo Levi is not just (just!) one the world's great witnesses to the Holocaust and a brilliant writer, his own personal story is extraordinary too and very much of its time. Read more
Published on 31 Oct 2007 by Rhiannon

4.0 out of 5 stars Biography of a Survivor
Primo Levi is an unlikely candidate for literary greatness. A grey little man, tied to his mother's apron, he lived all his life in the same Turin apartment, brought his wife... Read more
Published on 4 Jul 2002 by budge119

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