2022; 404 pages. New Author? : Yes. Genres : Humorous Fiction; Feminism; Chemistry;
Cooking. Laurels: Barnes & Noble 2022 Book of the Year (winner),
plus five more. Overall Rating : 9*/10.
Elizabeth Zott needs a job. She’s been expelled from her doctoral program
and fired from her lab technician job. There
are bills to pay and a young daughter to raise.
TV executive Walter Pine has a job opening. He works at KCTV and is putting together a
new afternoon TV show.
But afternoon TV shows are tricky
things. The target audience is retired
old people who have quaint viewing preferences.
Walter reckons little old ladies would like a cooking show. One that gives them new ideas to make for
supper.
The host of the show has got
to be a good-looking woman. Elizabeth
meets that criterion, so she’s a good choice for the job. And for the retired males who might be
watching, the female host should be wearing a tight-fitting outfit and be a
bit of a ditz. Elizabeth preferred fashion
outfit is a lab coat.
Walter, we have a problem.
What’s To Like...
Lessons in
Chemistry is Bonnie Garmus’s debut novel, and won six literary
awards, including the impressive Barnes & Noble’s “2022 Book of the Year”. The main storyline is a clever blend of
chemistry, cooking, science-vs.-religion, and feminism, yet somehow manages to
be both thought-provoking and humorous at the same time.
The book opens at an
interesting point. Elizabeth’s five-year
old, precocious daughter “Madeline” (her real
name is ‘Mad’. Don’t ask why.) is getting ready for school and her mom is
heading to work as the host on the TV show “Supper
at Six”. The second chapter
then ushers in an extensive flashback relating how Elizabeth got into this
situation.
The main focus of the tale is
on Elizabeth learning to cope with being an attractive, highly intelligent,
well-schooled, hard-working female. You
might think with all those assets, Elizabeth’s life and career would be smooth
sailing. It is not.
I loved the character
development. Madeline is gifted but
willful. Six-Thirty is a sentient
dog. Walter Pine struggles to satisfy
both a headstrong TV host and what his boss thinks will attract the largest TV
audience. Calvin Evans just wants a
hassle-free job and lifestyle.
The ending is both
heartwarming and twisty. A lineage issue
is cleared up and Elizabeth finally finds a job worthy of her talents. At least she, and the reader, hope so.
Kewlest New Word ...
Abiogenesis
(n.) : the natural process by which
life arises from non-living matter on Earth.
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.6/5
based on 316,649 ratings and 8,650 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.28/5 based on 1,899,426
ratings and 166,560 reviews.
Excerpts...
Scientists. They
just had to be different.
That was also
part of the problem. Most of the
Hastings scientists weren’t different—or at least not different enough. They were normal, average, at best slightly
above average. Not stupid, but not
genius either. They were the kind of
people who make up the majority of every company—normal people who do normal
work, and who occasionally get promoted into management with uninspiring
results. People who weren’t going to
change the world, but neither were they accidentally going to blow it up. (pg. 108)
“After you’ve
rubbed your steak with a halved clove of fresh garlic,” Elizabeth said a few
minutes later, “sprinkle both sides of the meat with sodium chloride and
piperine. Then, when you notice the
butter foaming”—she pointed to a hot cast-iron skillet—“place the steak in the
pan. Be sure and wait until the butter
foams. Foam indicates that the butter’s
water content has boiled away. This is
critical. Because now the steak can cook
in lipids rather than absorb H2O.” (pg. 288)
“Pass the sodium
chloride.” (pg.
61)
The profanity frequency in Lessons in Chemistry is relatively light; I noted
just 8 instances in the first 10% of the book, two of which were f-bombs. A few R-rated situations arise along
the way.
I didn’t notice any typos in
the whole book, which is a rarity for me.
Elizabeth’s brother committed suicide because he was a homosexual, which
has a profound effect on her. One of the
characters likes to debate the subject of Science-vs.-Religion with
her. Homophobes and Bible-Thumpers may
want to give this book a pass.
All of the plot threads get
tied up, so I'm guessing there won't be a sequel to this novel. It would be nice to be wrong about that though. Bonnie Garmus’s second book, Peck & Peck, is due out in mid-October. For a sneak preview, read Amazon's blurb. It certainly looks promising.
I am a (retired) chemist
by trade, so Lessons in Chemistry really resonated with me. The lab I worked in was usually an even mix
of genders, and two of the four lab managers we had over the years were
female. Our experiences with intelligent
female chemists were overwhelmingly positive.
As the Ratings section above
shows, Lessons in Chemistry is highly regarded and extremely
popular. It is fully worthy of the
laurels that have been bestowed upon it. I highly recommend it, both to male and female readers.
9 Stars. One last thing. At one point, the operetta Mikado comes under fire for being “sexist”. I don’t do operettas, so this was a surprise for me. Fortunately, Wikipedia gives an insightful explanation of why it’s garnered such criticism.
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