Book Review - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

When one sees the title of this novel it is easy to suppose that it will be only of interest to a very limited science orientated readership, and the apparent connection with cooking would make many go no further. However it is anything but dull, and deals with the way in which women were treated in the West as recently as the 1950s. As such it probably appeals more to the distaff side than to men, but anyone, of whichever sex, who has a sense of justice, and fairness, would find it both engrossing, and an essential reminder of how bad things were not very long ago.

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Synopsis

The protagonist Elizabeth Zott is exceedingly intelligent, beautiful, and has absolutely no doubt that women are the equal of men. Her first experience of how some men treat women is when she is sexually assaulted and refuses to apologise for stabbing her rapist, for which she is expelled from her doctoral program.

Although suspicious of men she meets fellow Hastings researcher Calvin Evans, they start dating and living together shortly after. He teaches her rowing, and they are adopted by a dog, who they name Six-Thirty, and whose canine musings are an important part of the story. Later she becomes pregnant, but Calvin is killed in an accident, some months after which she gives birth to a daughter Madeline.

The book continues with her enduring further incidents of anti female prejudice, before she becomes a cooking show host on television, which, thanks to her unique personality leads to her being transformed into an immensely popular celebrity. After more problems arising from her refusal to conform to the mores of her time, she finally makes contact with Calvin's mother, who uses her large financial resources to allow Elizabeth to return to her research projects.

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If this synopsis sound complicated it does not do justice to what is in effect a treatise on the deplorable way in which women were treated very recently, and has more of an impact than any number of loud street protests. Feminists should welcome it, and fair minded men should resolve to never behave in the way so many are portrayed in the book.