This novel in loosely linked episodes centres on Faussone, a skilled Piedmontese rigger who travels the world assembling cranes, bridges and towers. He tells his adventures to a narrator, a chemist much like Levi, during stays at a remote site in the Soviet Union. The stories are funny and warm, full of mishaps and technical detail. Through them Levi explores the pleasure of craftsmanship and the idea that good work is a form of freedom. It shows a lighter side of an author best known for his testimony.
Quotes
Nothing can be said: nothing sure, nothing probable, nothing honest. Better to err through omission than through commission: better to refrain from steering the fate of others, since it is already so difficult to navigate one's own.
Beware of analogies: for millenia they corrupted medicine, and it may be their fault that today's pedagogical systems are so numerous, and after three thousand years of argument we still don't know which is best.
I'm a libertine, but it's not my specialty.