Chemistry is the study of the composition, structure, properties and change of matter, a definition that has surprising resonance with the everyday concerns of the writer. The American author Bonnie Garmus has combined the two in her debut novel Lessons in Chemistry, one of the big publishing success stories of 2022, spending five months in the top five of the bestseller charts. On the face of it, Lessons in Chemistry seems to take a tried and tested formula – a plucky heroine battles the odds to stay true to herself – but the alchemy occurs with Garmus’s seamless blend of dry wit, sharp social satire and highly original premise.
Set in Commons, California in 1961, “when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving it a second thought,” the book follows the trials of Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist and single parent to a precocious five-year-old, Madeline.
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After being ousted from her job researching abiogenesis in the all-male Hastings Institute, Elizabeth becomes the host of a TV cooking show, where her unorthodox methods (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) and no-nonsense attitude sees her gain huge popularity with housewives across America. In Elizabeth, they have someone who takes the business of being a housewife seriously, who recognises how hard it is: “An enormous responsibility, the most undervalued job in the world that, nonetheless, holds everything together … Food is the catalyst that unlocks our brains, binds our families, and determines our futures.”
The dry narrative voice that switches between perspectives adds another comedic element, most of it mordant in tone
The irony is that Elizabeth longs to get back to the lab and her beloved research, that her rising popularity as a TV star only depresses her and makes her feel like a sell-out and a fraud. This is the kind of layered storytelling that makes Lessons in Chemistry so compelling. Although undeniably set in a particular time – the sexist, patriarchal society of mid-century America – there is a timelessness to the book, as there is to all the best stories; one suspects it will read as well in 10 or 20 years’ time.
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There are shades of other very successful novels in recent times – the oddball, forthright protagonist of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, the courageous heroine of Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce, or the hilarious despair in the novels of Nina Stibbe. It’s hard not to think of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn too, though Garmus has Elizabeth play it straight. Her character barely cracks a smile for the duration of the book. The humour is to be found in her candour and intelligence, the way she can outsmart any man in the room. The dry narrative voice that switches between perspectives adds another comedic element, most of it mordant in tone, as it points out the gender inequalities and injustices of the time.
Ep 553 The Book Club: Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
Garmus is a copywriter in her 60s who has worked for a wide range of clients, focusing primarily on technology, medicine and education. She is an open-water swimmer, a rower, and mother to two daughters. From Seattle, she lives in London with her husband and her dog, 99. The latter may well have been the inspiration for another great success in her novel, the canine perspective of Six-Thirty, a failed sniffer dog who endearingly watches over Elizabeth and Madeline, even if he doesn’t quite understand their world: “Humans were strange, Six-Thirty thought, the way they constantly battled dirt in their aboveground world, but after death willingly entombed themselves in it.”
Grounded in the real world, where life is unfair, the story of Elizabeth Zott offers lessons in chemistry, but also in survival
The pacing of Lessons in Chemistry is well-handled, with Garmus leaving questions to be answered over Elizabeth’s work situation, her history, and the back story of her beloved fellow chemist Calvin. Neat dialogue and the detective work of a genius child also keep things moving along. Subplots with side characters tie in nicely with the main story.
Each of these bit players get their moment in the spotlight, from a jealous human resources woman to a lonely TV executive, to this pinpoint description of Elizabeth’s neighbour and friend, the sage-like Harriet Sloane: “She was like a practical priest, someone to whom one could confess things – fears, hopes, mistakes – and expect in return, not a simpleton’s recipe for prayers and beads, or a psychologist’s standard ‘And how does that make you feel?’ runaround, but actual wisdom. How to get on with the business at hand. How to survive.”
It is a fitting summary of a book that is full of such discernments. Grounded in the real world, where life is unfair, the story of Elizabeth Zott offers lessons in chemistry, but also in survival: “He studied her face with fear, thinking this was probably the same way Joan of Arc looked right before they lit the match.”
