Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
A visceral, vivid, haunting, yet so very human depiction of humanity when faced with some of the worst horrors known to man. The way each scene is laid out is captivating, the straightforward tone speaking of each suffering, death, and misery in a clearly empathetic and powerful way was some of the most beautiful writing I've seen in modern literature. There's something so intricate and tender in the way death is described - the deaths of many is a fleeting thing, a number dwindling down from a hundred to forty; but the death of one man is slow, agonising, long, and insurmountable, just as prolonged and filled with effort as his life was. If This Is a Man answers its own question so poignantly and beautifully. A man lives. A man dreams. A man thinks and hopes for better. Without those things, there is no longer a man.
I can't recommend this book enough.
I can't recommend this book enough.
An obvious classic that alters the reader's understanding and belongs on any must-read list about the horrors of the Holocaust, right alongside higher-profile memoirs like [b:Night|1617|Night |Elie Wiesel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311999832s/1617.jpg|265616]. Perhaps not as poetic or linear as some of the other tales (Levi acknowledges "structural defects" in his preface), it's incredibly vivid in a different way, tapping into the unvarnished inner life of an adult prisoner and detailing the deadening minutiae of camp life under detail-obsessed captors/sadists.
Je viens de lire ce livre et tout ce que je peux dire c'est qu'il devrait être une lecture obligatoire pour tous les jeunes étudiants à travers le monde. Nous ne devons jamais oublier ce qui s'est passé dans les camps de concentration allemands du IIIe Reich. Ce qui est arrivé ne dois plus jamais recommencer.
I wonder if maybe the translation I had of the book was a particularly bad one. I had trouble following it at times and it felt very flat most of the time.
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
General Overview
A frank and wonderfully clear book, Primo Levi’s If This is a Man, is a short account of his time in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. From his arrival to leaving during the collapse of the Nazi Reich, it is a must read for those looking for accounts of this great horror.
Style
Written in a loose chronological order, Mr Levi makes it clear from the start that for the most part he endeavoured to write those bits of his story that he felt had most meaning first. This was in order to ensure he remembered them most accurately.
It is the day to day language of the brutality of it all that struck me the most in his retelling. The scenes and people he portrays feel oh so normal and human, but what he describes is as he well puts it, a hell.
As readable as it is grim, If This is a Man would be easy for anyone to read, if they can stomach the reality in which this book was written.
Substance
Covering from his time of capture in Italy, through to his arrival in Auschwitz, and discovering what he must do to survive, we read throughout of Primo Levi, those he met, and how the horrors of the Death Camp worked.
Meeting a variety of people, we are shown the great swath of those in the camp. The many doomed to be lost and die, those who adapted to survive, and even some who looked to profit.
His journey through life in the camp is one of brutal realities. Of bitter cold winters, of starvation, and of fear. It is the fear for himself that is shown throughout.
The end covers the fleeing of the Nazis from the camp, and his role in the aftermath, caring for those left behind.
It is a gripping story from start to finish. It is a story we must know. It is one we cannot see happen again.
Final Thoughts
A grim read that must be read to better understand the realities of Auschwitz, and what those forced behind its barbed wire walls had to do to survive. Primo Levi does well to tell his tale. You must read it.
Ik heb nog nooit zo'n mooi geschreven boek gelezen over het (over)leven in een concentratiekamp. Klassieker die iedereen zou moeten lezen.