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Chemist 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 early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with, of all things, her mind. True chemistry results. But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.… (more)
A fun easy read but I didn't relate to the main character. I am a scientist and I was a rower and I did not get the feeling that she understood either scientists or rowers. And even with that major flaw it was still a fun read. ( )
Bonnie Garmus - Lessons in Chemistry: It does a severe disservice to this novel to call it a farce (even if technically it is one). It is comedic, and yet it is a deeply serious reflection of the life of women in the 1950s and beyond. #cursorybookreviews #cursoryreviews ( )
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Genre: Historical Fiction Read: March 2023
I don’t typically like this sort of genre, but I must say, I loved this from beginning to end.
It’s every single emotion written into one book. It captures the era perfectly and hones in on the assumptions and blatant sexism women endured in this time, however, it’s not all bad. The people Elizabeth Zott meets throughout her story who rally behind her is so heartwarming. Elizabeth is quite simply fabulous, I love her and wish she was real so I could meet her! Equally amazing is her daughter Mad and dog Six-Thirty.
Overall, I think the author did an amazing job with this! I’m always a sucker for strong female characters, and Elizabeth Zott has topped every expectation. ( )
Despite Elizabeth being a bit of an unlikable character (the pretentious use of chemical terminology in place of common vernacular/labels was ridiculous), the graphic on page rape and sexual assault scenes, the unbelievable bits (my 3.5 year old could read and write but ain’t nobody believes a 4 year old is reading and comprehending complex Russian literature), and the other problematic parts, I actually really enjoyed this.
I liked the writing style and a lot of the other characters. There was a lovely found family aspect and the romance was gut wrenching and beautiful - the grief hit me in the feels hard. I liked the feminist aspects and pacing also. ( )
Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving a second thought; back before anyone knew there’d even be a sixties movement, much less one that it’s participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling: back when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were starting to think and believe everything was possible, the thirty-year-old mother of Madeline Zott rose before dawn every morning and felt certain of just one thing: her life was over.
Quotations
"Look," he said, "life has never been fair, and yet you continue to operate as if it is—as if once you get a few wrongs straightened out, everything else will fall into place. They won't. You want my advice?" And before she could say no, he added, "Don't work the system. Outsmart it."
If relationships are a puzzle, then theirs was solved from the get-go—as if someone shook out the box and watched from above as each separate piece landed exactly right, slipping one into the other, fully interlocked, into a picture that made perfect sense. They made other couples sick.
Thus the topic of family was like a cordoned-off room on a historic home tour.
"Call it a family tradition. Dying in accidents."
"No, I mean, was she also very religious?" Elizabeth hesitated. "Only if you count greed as a religion."
"People like my father preach love but are filled with hate."
"When I was a kid," Calvin said quietly, "I used to tell myself every day was new. That anything could happen."
Last week she'd peeked in on Mad during naptime and found the child sitting up in her crib explaining something in earnest to Six-Thirty. Elizabeth had hung back, watching in wonder as the baby, wobbling back and forth like a bowling pin threatening to topple, waved her hands as she chattered a steady stream of consonants and vowels strung together haphazardly, like laundry on a line, but delivered with the kind of passion that made it clear she was an expert in this area.
Having a baby, Elizabeth realized, was a little like living with a visitor from a distant planet. There was a certain amount of give and take as the visitor learned your ways and you learned theirs, but gradually their ways faded and your ways stuck. Which she found regrettable. Because unlike adults, her visitor never tired of even the smallest discovery; always saw the magic in the ordinary.
"By the way, I've been meaning to ask: Why do you think so many people believe in texts written thousands of years ago? And why does it seem the more supernatural, unprovable, improbable, and ancient the source of these texts, the more people believe them?"
The room filled with a thick silence, the weight of her ridiculous dream hanging like too-wet laundry on a windless day.
"He not only knew I belonged, he also knew I was onto something. The truth is, he stole my research. Published it and passed it off as his own." Roth's eyes widened. "I quit the same day." "Why didn't you tell the publication?" he said. "Why didn't you demand credit?" Elizabeth looked at Roth as if he lived on some other planet.
"Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change. The workforce would revolutionize. Marriage counselors would go out of business."
"When women understand these basic concepts, they can begin to see the false limits that have been created for them." "You mean by men." "I mean by artificial cultural and religious policies that put men in the highly unnatural role of single-sex leadership."
"I agree that society leaves much to be desired, but when it comes to religion, I tend to think it humbles us—teaches us our place in the world." "Really?" she said, surprised. "I think it lets us off the hook. I think it teaches us that nothing is really our fault; that something or someone else is pulling the strings; that ultimately, we're not to blame for the way things are; that to improve things, we should pray. But the truth is, we are very much responsible for the badness in the world. And we have the power to fix it." "But surely you're not suggesting that humans can fix the universe." "I'm speaking of fixing us, Mr. Roth—our mistakes. Nature works on a higher intellectual plane. We can learn more, we can go further, but to accomplish this, we must throw open the doors. Too many brilliant minds are kept from scientific research thanks to ignorant biases like gender and race. It infuriates me and it should infuriate you. Science has big problems to solve: famine, disease, extinction. And those who purposefully close the door to others using self-serving, outdated cultural notions are not only dishonest, they're knowingly lazy."
Chemist 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 early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with, of all things, her mind. True chemistry results. But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.
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Chemist 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 early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.
Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.
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