The Best Books I Read in 2016

Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography, by William F. Buckley, Jr., 2004.

The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, by Andrew Roberts, 2011.

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin, 1963.

Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi, originally published in 1947, first English translation published in 1958.

Wilson, by A. Scott Berg, 2013.

King of the Night: The Life of Johnny Carson, by Laurence Leamer, 1989.

Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, by Tom Wolfe, 1970.

The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe, 1979.

The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe, 1987.

I read 33 books in 2016, most of which I reviewed on this blog. Here are my favorites that I read this year. The links will take you to the full reviews of these books.

Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography, by William F. Buckley, Jr. 2004. WFB makes the list for a second year in a row. Miles Gone By isn’t a strict autobiography; rather, it’s a collection of autobiographical writings from throughout Buckley’s long career. Miles Gone By is really about the man behind the politics, and partisans of either stripe can enjoy Buckley’s wit, joie de vivre, impressive vocabulary, and generous spirit, all of which are on full display. It’s a marvelous read, and time spent in the company of the witty, passionate, intelligent Buckley is always time well spent.  

The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, by Andrew Roberts, 2011. Roberts also makes the list for a second year in a row, for his superb overview of World War II. Roberts brings the conflict to life, and he’s an equally good writer on military or political matters. His chapter on the Holocaust is superb and haunting. Roberts is also very strong on the Eastern front, and convincingly makes the argument that it was Russia who bled the Nazis dry. The Storm of War captures the global scope and sweep of World War II while still reminding us of the stark tragedies that each one of the 50 million deaths in that conflict represents.

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin, 1963. Baldwin’s searing look at race in America is still relevant today, more than fifty years after it was written.

Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi, 1947. For anyone wanting to understand more about the Holocaust, Levi’s eloquent memoir is a superb place to start. Levi was a prisoner in Auschwitz for more than a year, and in Auschwitz, he saw mankind at its worst. Levi summed up the entire experience of the Holocaust with this anecdote:

“Driven by thirst, I eyed a fine icicle outside the window, within hand’s reach. I opened the window and broke off the icicle but at once a large, heavy guard prowling outside brutally snatched it away from me. ‘Warum?’ I asked him in my poor German. ‘Hier ist kein warum’ (there is no why here), he replied, pushing me inside with a shove.” (p.29)

Wilson, by A. Scott Berg, 2013. An excellent cradle to grave biography of our 28^th President. Berg paints a vivid picture of one of our most accomplished presidents. Wilson’s writings are quoted from liberally, so the reader gets a vivid sense of his personality. 

King of the Night: The Life of Johnny Carson, by Laurence Leamer, 1989. A slight change of pace from the books listed above. This summer I attempted to learn all that I could about the enigmatic Johnny Carson. While Carson’s off-camera life was sometimes quite messy, (he was married four times) on screen he was the personification of cool, and he always seemed to have the perfect quip at hand. Leamer’s diligently researched biography is a superb portrait of the Tonight Show host.

Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, by Tom Wolfe, 1970. My new favorite author, Tom Wolfe, makes the list again, this time for three different books! Radical Chic describes a party that Leonard Bernstein threw for the Black Panthers at his thirteen-room, two-story, penthouse duplex. Wolfe’s writing is as sharp as a knife throughout the essay: “God, what a flood of taboo thoughts runs through one’s head at these Radical Chic events…But it’s delicious. It is as if one’s nerve endings were on red alert to the most intimate nuances of status.” Wolfe is always on red alert to the most intimate nuances of status! That’s his calling card! This is right up his alley! 

The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe, 1979. Wolfe’s chronicle of the early U.S. space program is an engaging look at the Mercury 7 astronauts. Along the way, Wolfe explores the mythic “right stuff” that test pilots and astronauts must have to remain cool under pressure. The sections where Wolfe re-creates the astronaut’s Mercury flights are superb. One of the main figures in the book is the late John Glenn, who was the most media friendly of the Mercury 7, and was also a strict moralizer who sometimes clashed with the other astronauts. 

The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe, 1987. Wolfe’s first novel, Bonfire was a massive study of New York City, specifically the justice system, the one part where different strata of society interacted. Wolfe captures the zeitgeist of the 1980’s in all its money-lusting glory with the character of Sherman McCoy, a wealthy bond trader. It’s a marvelous book, nearly 700 pages long, with 2,343 exclamation points.

Book Review: Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi, also known as If This is a Man (1947, first English translation 1958)

1996 paperback reissue of Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi. First published in Italian as If This is a Man, 1947, and first translated into English in 1958.

The Italian writer and chemist Primo Levi, 1919-1987.

One of the best classes I took in college was an English class called “Literature of the Holocaust.” We read a variety of genres, mostly written by Holocaust survivors. Primo Levi was one of the writers who I was most struck by in that class. Levi was an Italian chemist from Turin who spent more than a year in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Levi’s first book about his experiences during the Holocaust was titled If This is a Man, and was published in Italian in 1947, making it one of the earliest books written by a Holocaust survivor. If This is a Man was published in English in 1958 as Survival in Auschwitz. Levi’s book slowly acquired a growing audience over the years, and in 1963 he published his second book, The Truce, known in the United States as The Reawakening, which chronicles Levi’s long journey home after the liberation of Auschwitz. Levi published several more books during his lifetime, retiring from his work as a chemist in 1977 to devote himself to writing full time. Levi died in 1987 due to injuries from a fall from his third-story apartment. There has been debate among Levi’s biographers as to whether his death should be considered a suicide or accidental.

In Auschwitz, Levi saw mankind at its worst, and in Survival in Auschwitz he presents us with an unvarnished look at the atrocities committed by the Third Reich. Levi summed up the entire experience of the Holocaust with this anecdote:

“Driven by thirst, I eyed a fine icicle outside the window, within hand’s reach. I opened the window and broke off the icicle but at once a large, heavy guard prowling outside brutally snatched it away from me. ‘Warum?’ I asked him in my poor German. ‘Hier ist kein warum’ (there is no why here), he replied, pushing me inside with a shove.” (p.29)

“There is no why here” would have been a fitting motto for the gates of the death camps. Levi also writes of a fellow inmate who had written on the bottom of his soup bowl, “Ne pas chercher a comprendre,” French for “Do not try to understand.” (p.103)

Levi has some eloquent passages about how time moves in the camp. “When one waits time moves smoothly without need to intervene and drive it forward, while when one works, every minute moves painfully and has to be laboriously driven away.” (p.104) After finishing a day’s work, Levi writes, “We have bored our way through all the minutes of the day, this very day which seemed invincible and eternal this morning; now it lies dead and is immediately forgotten; already it is no longer a day, it has left no trace in anybody’s memory.” (p.133)

Levi knows that luck played a large role in why he survived Auschwitz and others did not. His training as a chemist helped him, as he was part of a small group selected to work in a laboratory that supplied labor for the German company IG Farben. This allowed Levi to work inside during the winter of 1944-1945. Levi’s tales of constantly having to repair parts of the factory after it had been bombed by the Allies make clear the Sisyphean nature of his labor. As Auschwitz was being evacuated by the Germans, Levi was in the camp hospital, which meant that he was not part of the brutal forced marches that killed many prisoners. The Germans simply left invalids like Levi behind, and he was able to survive until the camp was liberated by the Russians on January 27, 1945. 

Survival in Auschwitz is an essential book for anyone who wants to get an idea of what life inside Auschwitz was like, told by an astute observer of the human condition. The current edition of Survival in Auschwitz also features as an afterword a 1986 interview with Levi, conducted by Philip Roth. Roth’s interview reveals to the reader Primo Levi’s proud humanity.