Book Review by Judith Umbach
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist engaged in original research which is stolen by her boss. But who would believe a woman! Women in lab coats are only assistants.
The era is the 1950s and 1960s and Lessons in Chemistry is not only focused on scientific facts. Author Bonnie Garmus uses humour to explore the stifling of women’s abilities in ways that support the myth of male superiority.
To their surprise, Elizabeth Zott and fellow-scientist, Calvin Evans, fall deeply in love. Their understanding of each other grows from the deprivation and tragedy they each experienced in childhood. Chemistry is safe compared to the danger of exploitive human relations.
But Elizabeth’s future is thrown into turmoil by Calvin’s pointless accidental death. That he left her the “gift” of a daughter only makes everything worse. Their employer takes delight in firing her, citing her sins of child-out-of-wedlock and riding her husband’s coat tails. The falsity of the latter is surreptitiously acknowledged by her fellow scientists who seek her out at home to interpret data from her experiments.
Walter Pine, a programmer for afternoon TV, and Elizabeth almost smash into each other. The inadvertent collision creates Supper at Six, a cooking show like no other. Over Walter’s anguished appeals for blandness, Elizabeth stares into the camera and instructs mothers in the sciences of nutrition, chemistry, and physics to produce a delicious dinner for the family’s evening meal. The studio audience attends with pens and notebooks.
Like any single mother, Elizabeth gradually accepts help. Six-thirty, a foundling dog, taught to recognize over 600 words by Elizabeth in her non-existent spare time, keeps her safe. The unlikely Reverend Wakely becomes a bewildered friend who gives kindness. Even the detestable Miss Frask, once betrayer, turns to saviour.
Madeline, nicknamed Mad, proves the value of her mother’s nutrition lessons by reading very early in life. Being socially smarter than her mother, she hides the fact from her teacher, but the truth very slowly emerges.
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