The 17th book I read this year was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I kept seeing clips of the TV series based on this book on Tiktok and liked them so much, I decided to read the book before finding somewhere to watch it properly.
A summary attempt
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, she’s been one at her core since she was a little girl but in 1950’s America, a female scientist – let alone one that is ten times smarter than her male colleagues and also incredibly direct and blunt – is not well liked, or respected.
The story flips around the timeline between the present: where Elizabeth is the presenter of a daytime TV show called ‘Supper at Six’ and has a daughter out of wedlock, to the past: detailing how she meets Calvin, another scientist, and falls in love, with various stories peppered in showing her childhood, Calvin’s childhood, her neighbor who helps with her daugther and the dog: Six Thirty.
In the present, the TV show is incredibly successful, despite how much the Studio’s head protests the way Zott treats it like a chemistry lesson rather than a cooking show. Zott’s show makes a point of talking about how valuable the work of housewives is, how supper and home-making isn’t simple, or easy, and women are not less-than… for some reason the popularity baffles the station owner…
We see how a chemist came to lead a cooking show, the challenges she faced as a women scientist juxtaposed against the ease with which her partner is given acclaim – despite not having produced tangible research in years. We later see the challenges she faced as an unwed mother and as a rather ‘radical’ thinker (I.E women are people of value too) in a very conservative time.
Over the book we slowly learn how we got to the present day, and once all the puzzle pieces are in place, we follow Elizabeth as she tries to reclaim her research and her life.
My thoughts
I feel like you can probably tell with the summaries how much I liked or hated a book, because both get super long! In this case, I loved this book.
It’s heartbreaking but in that way of just beautiful storytelling, you really feel the injustices done to Elizabeth, even though the narration does not wax on about it. Some parts of it are relayed without emotion, very factual, kind of like Elizabeth herself, but you become angry nonetheless. Especially as a women, knowing you are reading about a time not that long ago really, knowing that the laws protecting you from what happens to Elizabeth aren’t that old… and a fair few of them are under threat in the current political climate.
The story telling style completely reels you in, as the picture of her and Calvin’s life builds you spend the whole time wanting more and more pieces and then when you get them all you kind of want to cry for Elizabeth… or smash something.
100% recommend this book, it’s probably one of the best things I’ve read this year.
Antonia Bernardin 