Lessons in Chemistry

Recommended by a clerk at Barnes & Noble some months ago and by a book group member more recently, I finally read this debut novel by Bonnie Garmus. Elizabeth Zott is a talented chemistry student in 1960's southern California who is raped by her professor and drops out because, who would take her word for the event over a professor's. She takes a job as a chemist at a research institute where she endures the disdain and harassment of her male colleagues--all except one, Nobel contender Calvin Evans. He recognizes her brilliance and encourages her and they eventually fall in love and move in together. Elizabeth finds out she is pregnant shortly after she loses Calvin and then is fired from her job because of the stigma of a pregnancy out of wedlock.  The single father of her daughter Madeline's friend learns that his daughter has been eating Madeline's lunches because they are so delicious and persuades the unemployed Elizabeth to host a TV cooking show. Elizabeth agrees but defies every aspect of what the station owner wants in the show. She won't wear the frilly apron; she wears a lab coat. After all, cooking is chemistry and she is tired of women being talked down to. Unexpectedly, Elizabeth's show becomes wildly popular, gets syndicated and money is no longer a problem. In the end, Elizabeth is helped by another behind the scenes woman who helps her get some satisfying revenge. The mood is often lightened by the thoughts of Elizabeth's dog, Six-Thirty.

Publishers Weekly calls the book a "feminist fairy tale" that lacks depth, while Booklist claimed it was a "thoroughly engaging debut novel." The New York Times reviewer raves that it's "irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you that change takes time and always requires heat....How, exactly, she was cheated out of a doctorate and lost the love of her life — Calvin Evans, a kindred scientist, expert rower and the father of her daughter, Madeline — are central elements in the story, but feminism is the catalyst that makes it fizz like hydrochloric acid on limestone." Likewise, Kirkus offers "Two chemists with major chemistry, a dog with a big vocabulary, and a popular cooking show are among the elements of this unusual compound...A more adorable plea for rationalism and gender equality would be hard to find."