The Monkey's Wrench: A Novel

A chemist-turned-writer and a construction rigger in a remote factory pass the time swapping tales of their lives and voyages. Primo Levi’s most light-hearted novel, The Monkey’s Wrench is a tribute to storytelling, human ingenuity, and the importance of finding meaningful work in life.“ A lot of stories have happened to me,” says Faussone, the mysterious construction rigger at the center of this comic novel by Primo Levi. Far from home on a work assignment, Libertino Faussone befriends the book’s narrator, a chemist based loosely off of Levi himself. Although he can’t quite explain it, the chemist is immediately entranced by the wandering laborer who has traveled to every corner of the world. The two embark on an unlikely friendship, trading tales filled with curses and spies, scandal and heartbreak. With its easy-going and even whimsical tone, The Monkey’s Wrench is a change from Primo Levi’s other works. Yet its message is just as vital. The novel reminds us about the importance of connection between strangers, our endless capacity to solve even the most challenging of problems, and finding fulfillment in work. Along with Elie Wiesel and Hannah Arendt, Primo Levi is remembered as one of the most powerful and perceptive writers on the Holocaust and the Jewish experience during World War II. This is an essential book both for students and literary readers. Reading Primo Levi is a lesson in the resiliency of the human spirit. 'This is not a book for journalists. Civil servants, too, will feel uneasy while reading it, and as for lawyers, they will never sleep again. For it is about a man in his capacity as homo faber, a maker of things with his hands, and what has any of us ever made but words. I say it is "about" the man who makes; truly, it is more a hymn of praise than a description, and not only because the toiler who is the hero of the book is a hero indeed - a figure, in his humanity, simplicity, worthy of inclusion in the catalogue of mythical giants alongside Hercules, Atlas, Gargantua and Orion. He is Faussone, a rigger' Bernard Levin, The Times 'The Wrench' is one of Primo Levi's collections of stories. It takes the form of an interview by a chemist of a rigger. They are both working in a remote work camp where there is little to do in the evenings except tell stories. The scene is loosely based upon Togliattigrad, the Fiat camp set up in Russia to build a car factory