Lessons In Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus

As hard as it is to be a woman in a man’s world today, sometimes we forget just how much harder it was a few decades ago. In living memory, women were forced to quit their jobs after marrying, required their husband’s signature to open a bank account, and faced innumerable indignities in both the private and public spheres. Books like Lessons In Chemistry remind us just how far we’ve come (and how far we’ve got to go).

Lessons In Chemistry was, in fact, inspired by Bonnie Garmus’s own experience having a male co-worker take credit for her work at a marketing agency. She transplanted that basically-universal experience back to the 1960s, into the then-burgeoning field of organic chemistry research, and created a character – Elizabeth Zott – who refuses to meekly accept the brunt of men’s bad behaviour.

Elizabeth Zott has a masters in organic chemistry from UCLA – already unusual for a woman of the time – and she was eagerly anticipating completing her PhD… until she was (content warning) sexually assaulted by her supervisor. She fought back, severely injuring him with a pencil as her only weapon, and found herself summarily expelled from the program when she refused to apologise.

Still, she managed to land more-or-less on her feet with a job at Hastings Research Institute, where she meets wunderkind Calvin Evans. Despite disastrous first (and second) encounters, they fall in love.

You might expect, if Lessons In Chemistry were a romance novel, that they would face some minor trials and miscommunications before promptly marrying and having babies and living happily ever after – but that’s not what Elizabeth Zott wants for her life. She loves Calvin, but she refuses to marry him or bear his children after seeing what those choices do to the careers of women scientists (see: Albert Einstein’s first wife Mileva Marić, or Marie Curie).

So, bucking the convention of the era, Elizabeth Zott lives “in sin” with her lover, and together they almost-accidentally adopt a dog that they name Six-Thirty. (Yes, it’s weird, but it makes sense in the novel.) Minor spoiler that’s essential for fellow dog-lovers: I’m happy to report that, despite a couple of close calls, Six-Thirty survives the novel and lives a long, happy and healthy life (and plays an integral role in the plot, no less).

That alone might be enough to constitute a happy ending, but Garmus has more in store for readers of Lessons In Chemistry (more spoilers to follow, you’ve been warned).

Calvin dies in a tragic accident, leaving Elizabeth pregnant and alone. As if that weren’t enough, she’s quickly fired from her job at Hastings, as they refuse to have an unmarried pregnant woman on staff. She gets by for a while, having built her own laboratory in her home kitchen and charging consultancy fees to the (male) Hastings scientists who still run to her for help – but soon, she takes a job as the host of a cooking show on television, out of financial necessity.

Her new boss expects her to smile graciously and make delicious, nutritious food while parroting the party line about caring for one’s family, but Elizabeth “refuses to perpetuate the myth that women are incompetent”. Instead, she uses the vehicle of the show – Supper at Six – to teach chemistry to a nation of housewives, and encourage them to follow their dreams outside of domesticity.

Lessons In Chemistry loses steam a little bit in the final act, but ultimately the plot comes together exactly how you’d expect. It’s satisfying to see the villains get what’s coming to them, but it still might’ve been nice to introduce an element of surprise in the conclusion. Still, it’s not hard to see why this was one of the most-borrowed books from public libraries in 2023 and 2024 – it’s an empowering read with a fierce and funny protagonist, about living a life outside the mold.

Read Lessons In Chemistry on audiobook via Libro.fm here.

My favourite Amazon reviews of Lessons In Chemistry:

• “Wow! Lessons is right. It’s a giant lecture or woke scold. Who wants to be lectured.” – CHermy
• “Totally resistible reead” – Harrison Spencer
• “This book is written well, it is just very negative and depressing.” – k
• “If you want to read a book pushing feminism, atheism, socialism and misandry… well, look no further. Awful.” – Heather Barnes