Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collections
Publication
Penguin Classics (1995), Edition: Reprint, 352 pages
Description
In this gripping novel, based on a true story, Primo Levi reveals the extraordinary lives of the Russian, Polish and Jewish partisans trapped behind enemy lines during the Second World War. Wracked by fear, hunger and fierce rivalries, they link up, fall apart, struggle to stay alive and to sabotage the efforts of the all-powerful German army.A compelling tale of action, resistance and epic adventure, it also reveals Levi's characteristic compassion and deep insight into the moral dilemmas of total war. It ranks alongside The Peridoic Tableand If This Is a Manas one of the masterpieces of our times.
User reviews
LibraryThing member papalaz
Primo Levi started his writing career before his incarceration in Auschwitz although it would seem only two short stories, which later appeared in The Periodic Table, survive. His ouvre consists mainly of memoirs and poetry. It wasn't until 1984 when "If Not Now, When?" was written that Levi as a
His sentences are beautiful and his paragraphs so well balanced that reading this work is almost effortless and at the same time almost endlessly satisfying and while the book ostensibly chronicles the wanderings and adventures of a group of mainly Jewish partisans in the rubble of the rout of Third Reich forces in Europe at the end of WWII there are other ways to read it. It is only when Levi finally turned to the novel form that he grudgingly gave the reader a valid role in his writing.
Although Levi was lionised for his memoirs and essays the justification for such heavy praise was, in this writer's opinion, chiefly based in the guilt that the non-Jewish readership felt after WWII and a fellow feeling among literary critics but this late work shows Levi in a more reflective and less polemical mind.
Where his previous work concentrated on memorialising the horrors of the German project to annihilate Jewry "If Not Now, When?" examines the nature of resistance and integrity in the face of overwhelming circumstances and emphasises the humanity of its characters - the rich, the generous, the flawed, and sometimes hateful humanity of them.
I was left wondering as I read this superb work whether Levi had finally come to terms with the reality that the holocaust had been something other than the unique, singularly evil, historically anomalous event that he had always portrayed. By 1984 Vietnam and the Cambodian genocide were already historically attested. By 1984 the disgraceful treatment of the Palestinians was into its third decade and the first Lebanon War was over. The Sabra and Shatila Masacre was history by 1984.
For this reader the regular references throughout "If Not Now, When?" to Palestine as the ultimate escape destination for his brave partisans are signifiers. His partisans talk of Palestine but never the Palestinians. Palestine is theirs by right. In Palestine the horrors of the holocaust can finally be laid to their proper historical resting place - burnt into the racial memory of mankind, never to be repeated and in this light the title and its context is oddly, macabrely ironic.
Show More
writer emerged. In this towering book we finally hear his proper authorial voice.His sentences are beautiful and his paragraphs so well balanced that reading this work is almost effortless and at the same time almost endlessly satisfying and while the book ostensibly chronicles the wanderings and adventures of a group of mainly Jewish partisans in the rubble of the rout of Third Reich forces in Europe at the end of WWII there are other ways to read it. It is only when Levi finally turned to the novel form that he grudgingly gave the reader a valid role in his writing.
Although Levi was lionised for his memoirs and essays the justification for such heavy praise was, in this writer's opinion, chiefly based in the guilt that the non-Jewish readership felt after WWII and a fellow feeling among literary critics but this late work shows Levi in a more reflective and less polemical mind.
Where his previous work concentrated on memorialising the horrors of the German project to annihilate Jewry "If Not Now, When?" examines the nature of resistance and integrity in the face of overwhelming circumstances and emphasises the humanity of its characters - the rich, the generous, the flawed, and sometimes hateful humanity of them.
I was left wondering as I read this superb work whether Levi had finally come to terms with the reality that the holocaust had been something other than the unique, singularly evil, historically anomalous event that he had always portrayed. By 1984 Vietnam and the Cambodian genocide were already historically attested. By 1984 the disgraceful treatment of the Palestinians was into its third decade and the first Lebanon War was over. The Sabra and Shatila Masacre was history by 1984.
For this reader the regular references throughout "If Not Now, When?" to Palestine as the ultimate escape destination for his brave partisans are signifiers. His partisans talk of Palestine but never the Palestinians. Palestine is theirs by right. In Palestine the horrors of the holocaust can finally be laid to their proper historical resting place - burnt into the racial memory of mankind, never to be repeated and in this light the title and its context is oddly, macabrely ironic.
Show Less
LibraryThing member otterley
I must confess that I had always steered clear of Primo Levi, mostly because of the sadness of his story - the Italian chemist, deported to Auschwitz, survived, wrote, killed himself. But this is an extraordinary book and - bizarrely - not depressing. Sad, certainly, angering, thought provoking -
Show More
but also extraordinarily exhilerating. Levi writes about an eclectic and changing band of Jewish partisans passing through central Europe during the second half of the War. Their back stories are of devastating loss and horror, but also of survival, determination, humour and life. This is a book with some brilliant Jewish jokes, tales of adventure and grim survival, a primer into how to survive (and how to die) and an eye-opening depiction of the chaos on the ground in central Europe where partisans of different colours wander across shifting front lines, villages are over-run and over-run again, and the marginalised European Jew becomes a devastated species. The partisans are wandering Jews, looking for their homeland in Palestine - and again this is a brilliantly illuminating demonstration of the power of the concept of Israel to people who have lost everything, a power that still shines brightly today in a very different world. This is a book I would strongly recommend to anyone. Show Less
LibraryThing member suesbooks
I did not care for this tale of the partisans as much as I did the other P:rimo Levi works I have read. I found this very jounalistic, and I did learn details of the partisans' lives, but I was not able to connect with or care about individual characters.
LibraryThing member jmoncton
Well written story about a group of Jews who band together to continue fighting the war as an outlaw group of partisans as they make their way towards Italy. Interesting that much of the content was so devasatating, yet told in such a dispassionate way. Still had a large impact.
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
"If I'm not for myself, who will be for me?
If not this way, how? If not now, when?"
'If Not Now, When' is based on a true story and pays tribute to those Eastern European Jews who fought back during the holocaust and the moral struggles they faced.
Russian artilleryman Mendel finds himself separated
The novel draws on Levi's own experiences in Auschwitz and as a displaced person after the end of the war along with the stories of partisans he met. It gives readers a feel for the scattered skirmishes of a spread-out war, and the uneasy relationships between civilians and the different partisan groups with Russians and Poles, civilian and military, not always friendly to Jews.
Individuals rather than historical events are at the centre of this book, Mendel first and foremost but others in the group are also given substance. Some struggle with doubt and despair, and through Mendel's musing we see the philosophical quandary facing those who have lost everything and must find new life goals and purposes.
"The sea of grief has no shores, no bottoms; no one can sound its depths."
This isn't a fast-moving novel but rather a powerful story of human endurance in a hostile world that shows a part of the Jewish WWII story that isn't widely written about. Strangely, given that these were the closest to Levi's own experiences, I found the final few chapters something of a let down but overall I enjoyed this novel, my first by the author, and feels that it deserves to be more widely read.
If not this way, how? If not now, when?"
'If Not Now, When' is based on a true story and pays tribute to those Eastern European Jews who fought back during the holocaust and the moral struggles they faced.
Russian artilleryman Mendel finds himself separated
Show More
from his regiment and joins a band of refugees made up predominantly of Russian and Polish Jews led by the violin-playing Gedaleh. With their families dead and homes destroyed, and with nothing left to live for but to fight for survival the group become partisans. Heading west the group journey across Byelorussia and Poland, into conquered Germany, and eventually to Italy attacking German supply lines when they can. The novel draws on Levi's own experiences in Auschwitz and as a displaced person after the end of the war along with the stories of partisans he met. It gives readers a feel for the scattered skirmishes of a spread-out war, and the uneasy relationships between civilians and the different partisan groups with Russians and Poles, civilian and military, not always friendly to Jews.
Individuals rather than historical events are at the centre of this book, Mendel first and foremost but others in the group are also given substance. Some struggle with doubt and despair, and through Mendel's musing we see the philosophical quandary facing those who have lost everything and must find new life goals and purposes.
"The sea of grief has no shores, no bottoms; no one can sound its depths."
This isn't a fast-moving novel but rather a powerful story of human endurance in a hostile world that shows a part of the Jewish WWII story that isn't widely written about. Strangely, given that these were the closest to Levi's own experiences, I found the final few chapters something of a let down but overall I enjoyed this novel, my first by the author, and feels that it deserves to be more widely read.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Premio Viareggio Rèpaci (1982)
Premio Campiello (Winner — 1982)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1982 (Original)
1985 (English translation)
Physical description
352 p.; 5.11 inches
ISBN
9780140188936