Lessons in Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry is a bookstagram favourite, so I bought it knowing only that it had many five star ratings and a story that focused on a female chemist who has a unique TV cooking show. 

It's touted as 'shrewdly observant' (check) and 'laugh out loud funny' ... ummm, nope. I didn't find this book funny in the slightest. It tackles important issues and has an interesting, albeit overly exaggerated, cast of characters. Its main character is Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant and intense, but socially naïve scientist whose beliefs in women's rights were well ahead of her time. To me, she came off as robotic in her demeanor and her reactions to events. Her daughter Madeline is also brilliant and precocious, but I couldn't suspend disbelief enough to believe that a four-year-old could speak and behave like someone at least a decade older. Six Thirty, the canine companion, stole the show with his observances of the odd assortment of humans he interacts with, but menfolk generally don't fare well in this story.

What stood out for me were the issues that Garmus addresses in this book and while some religious folks may take umbrage with how the Church is portrayed, I had no such qualms and think that the topics raised will give readers much to discuss. What did surprise me was that the cooking show element, which I thought was the basis of the book, wasn't used much within the story.

This wasn't the extraordinary read I had expected based on its MANY high ratings. I loved the bond between Elizabeth and Calvin and appreciated the focus on themes of misogyny, feminism, trauma at the hands of the church, grief etc., and while I wanted to love it, it didn't quite live up to its hype. In the end, it's a decent read that took me over two weeks to read and one that I wish I had borrowed from the library instead of buying it.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Author: Bonnie Garmus

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Type and Source: Trade Paperback, Personal copy

Publisher: DoubleDay Canada

First Published: March 29, 2022

Book Description from GoodReads: A delight for readers of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, this blockbuster debut set in 1960s California features the singular voice of Elizabeth Zott, a scientist whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved TV cooking show.

Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the 1960s and despite the fact that she is a scientist, her peers are very unscientific when it comes to equality. The only good thing to happen to her on the road to professional fulfillment is a run-in with her super-star colleague Calvin Evans (well, she stole his beakers). The only man who ever treated her--and her ideas--as equal, Calvin is already a legend and Nobel nominee. He's also awkward, kind and tenacious. Theirs is true chemistry.

But as events are never as predictable as chemical reactions, three years later Elizabeth Zott is an unwed, single mother (did we mention it's the early 60s?) and the star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's singular approach to cooking (take one pint of H2O and add a pinch of sodium chloride) and independent example are proving revolutionary. Because Elizabeth isn't just teaching women how to cook, she's teaching them how to change the status quo.

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters (including the best canine character in years), Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.