Primo Levi (191987) is a complex and difficult writer to see fully. His If This Is a Man, The Periodic Table, and The Drowned and the Saved are profound meditations on Auschwitz, but the various formats and viewpoints he used can make it hard to grasp a clear understanding of his work, influence, and importance. Magavern (law, Univ. at Buffalo), who stresses the greatness of Levi, has attempted a short biographic and literary reading of the complete...