Volume 33, Number 21 & 22 · January 15, 1987
Bridges & Boundaries
By D.J. Enright
The Monkey's Wrench
by Primo Levi, translated by William Weaver
Summit Books, 171 pp., $15.95
To the Land of the Cattails
by Aharon Appelfeld, translated by Jeffrey M. Green
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 148 pp., $14.95
The narrator of The Monkey's Wrench reflects that, while the word 'freedom' has only too many meanings, perhaps the most accessible form of freedom, the most enjoyable and the most useful to society, 'consists of being good at your job and therefore taking pleasure in doing it.' He will of course be aware that the welcoming words over the gate to Auschwitz were Arbeit macht Frei; but then, Arbeit too has many meanings. When he speaks of his own profession, that of chemist, he describes it as what he studied in school and what 'has kept me alive so far.' What kept Primo Levi alive in Auschwitz was his knowledge of chemistry: for two crucial months he was transferred to the nearby IG Farben laboratory. 'That surprises you, eh?' his fictitious raconteur, Faussone, observes in relating how his father worked on the German railways after the fall of Mussolini: 'But having a skill always comes in handy.'
Review, 2726 words
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