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A review by jamespuntillo
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
5.0
I took my time with this book. Levi is a meticulous writer, and the translation is top notch. His prose is vivid and solemn, and perfectly captures the precariousness of the human spirit.
Mendel, the de facto protagonist of the story, is a likeable paragon of morality. You can see Levi exploring his own naivety of his Jewishness inside Mendel's character, and when he falters, like with the Gedalists and their sometimes warped sense of morality, Mendel powers through with a deep sense of introspection that always finds its way back his watchmaking. His craft roots him in something real, much like Levi's rootedness in his chemistry—a shorthand, we learn, for his pragmatism, which he claims saved his life.
I loved this book. It was tedious and boring at times, but Levi discovers themes in the most peculiar places. The birth of a child at the end of the story, begotten from a nearly dying Jewish woman and her young husband, is a beautiful metaphor for the persistence of the Jews in Europe. Their survival story never quite makes it to Palestine, yet the ending seems to underlie this new beginning, brought about at a turning point, when the first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
In a place and time where death comes easy and "life is an exception", Levi spends little time on the characters who are almost wantonly annihilated in the course of the story. Leonid's death is both unforeseen and staggeringly quick. None of the characters, even Mendel, seem to notice his absence, except in the penultimate episode of the novel, when the group wishes that they had had his acumen of urban life while stationed in Milan. Even then, life and comradery is only second to the utility that fellowship provides the group.
What is this new world? Why does Mendel want to coexist with this woman that isn't Rivke but that makes him feel sexually liberated? Where is their relationship headed even after being the catalyst for the supposed death of their friend?
Mendel, the de facto protagonist of the story, is a likeable paragon of morality. You can see Levi exploring his own naivety of his Jewishness inside Mendel's character, and when he falters, like with the Gedalists and their sometimes warped sense of morality, Mendel powers through with a deep sense of introspection that always finds its way back his watchmaking. His craft roots him in something real, much like Levi's rootedness in his chemistry—a shorthand, we learn, for his pragmatism, which he claims saved his life.
I loved this book. It was tedious and boring at times, but Levi discovers themes in the most peculiar places. The birth of a child at the end of the story, begotten from a nearly dying Jewish woman and her young husband, is a beautiful metaphor for the persistence of the Jews in Europe. Their survival story never quite makes it to Palestine, yet the ending seems to underlie this new beginning, brought about at a turning point, when the first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
In a place and time where death comes easy and "life is an exception", Levi spends little time on the characters who are almost wantonly annihilated in the course of the story. Leonid's death is both unforeseen and staggeringly quick. None of the characters, even Mendel, seem to notice his absence, except in the penultimate episode of the novel, when the group wishes that they had had his acumen of urban life while stationed in Milan. Even then, life and comradery is only second to the utility that fellowship provides the group.
What is this new world? Why does Mendel want to coexist with this woman that isn't Rivke but that makes him feel sexually liberated? Where is their relationship headed even after being the catalyst for the supposed death of their friend?