Lessons In Chemistry
by Garmus, Bonnie
Reviews
Review this book!
"… here she was, a single mother, the lead scientist on what had to be the most unscientific experiment of all time: the raising of another human being. Every day she found parenthood like taking a test for which she had not studied. The questions were daunting and there wasn't nearly enough multiple choice."
Lessons in Chemistry is the first novel by American copywriter, creative director, and author, Bonnie Garmus. Elizabeth Zott is a chemist. While she'd much prefer to be working on her research in a lab, she's presenting a cooking show on TV. It's 1962, she has a daughter to support, and TV pays better. It's not at all where she thought she'd be, ten years earlier… In 1952, Elizabeth has already been thrown out of the doctoral program at UCLA when she rejects the advances of her thesis advisor with a freshly-sharpened number-two pencil, and ends up at the Hastings Research Institute under the supervision of the equally misogynistic and insecure Dr Donatti.
The star scientist at Hastings is Nobel-Prize-nominated Calvin Evans, who boasts a well-equipped lab all to himself. Elizabeth needs beakers, helps herself to his, and gets rapped over the knuckles for disturbing the poster boy. But Calvin is quickly entranced by this beautiful woman who clearly has a brain, and uses it. Each pretends it's a relationship based on mutual scientific interests until they succumb to the immediate irresistible pull of physical attraction. They have chemistry.
But. Elzabeth Zott is a chemist, and she wants to do, and be recognised for, her own research, not ride on the coattails of her talented boyfriend. "Elizabeth's grudges were mainly reserved for the patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less. Less capable. Less intelligent. Less inventive. A society that believed men went to work and did important things – discovered planets, developed products, created laws – and women stayed home and raised children… she also knew that plenty of women did want children and a career. And what was wrong with that? Nothing. It was exactly what men got." All that she encounters is obstacles.
Four years on, Elizabeth is a single mother starring in the most unconventional cooking show that American TV has ever seen and, despite lots of (male) objections, she has a devout following. What makes many of the men in charge uncomfortable are her freely-shared frank opinions and her encouragement of women wanting to follow their dreams.
Garmus tells her story through multiple narrators, one of whom is Elizabeth's clever dog, Six-Thirty, and she often gives them wise words and insightful observations. While her description of sexual harassment may be confronting for some readers, Garmus also manages to include a few scenes that will bring a lump to the throat, and a generous amount of humour, some of it quite black, much of it laugh-out-loud.
Her depiction of the late fifties and early sixties will definitely resonate with readers of a certain vintage, who may have experienced similar: "With the exception of [a select few], she only ever seemed to bring out the worst in men. They either wanted to control her, touch her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to do. She didn't understand why they couldn't just treat her as a fellow human being, as a colleague, a friend, an equal, or even a stranger on the street, someone to whom one is automatically respectful until you find out they've buried a bunch of bodies in the backyard." Funny, moving and thought-provoking, this is a brilliant debut.
"… here she was, a single mother, the lead scientist on what had to be the most unscientific experiment of all time: the raising of another human being. Every day she found parenthood like taking a test for which she had not studied. The questions were daunting and there wasn't nearly enough multiple choice."
Lessons in Chemistry is the first novel by American copywriter, creative director, and author, Bonnie Garmus. Elizabeth Zott is a chemist. While she'd much prefer to be working on her research in a lab, she's presenting a cooking show on TV. It's 1962, she has a daughter to support, and TV pays better. It's not at all where she thought she'd be, ten years earlier… In 1952, Elizabeth has already been thrown out of the doctoral program at UCLA when she rejects the advances of her thesis advisor with a freshly-sharpened number-two pencil, and ends up at the Hastings Research Institute under the supervision of the equally misogynistic and insecure Dr Donatti.
The star scientist at Hastings is Nobel-Prize-nominated Calvin Evans, who boasts a well-equipped lab all to himself. Elizabeth needs beakers, helps herself to his, and gets rapped over the knuckles for disturbing the poster boy. But Calvin is quickly entranced by this beautiful woman who clearly has a brain, and uses it. Each pretends it's a relationship based on mutual scientific interests until they succumb to the immediate irresistible pull of physical attraction. They have chemistry.
But. Elzabeth Zott is a chemist, and she wants to do, and be recognised for, her own research, not ride on the coattails of her talented boyfriend. "Elizabeth's grudges were mainly reserved for the patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less. Less capable. Less intelligent. Less inventive. A society that believed men went to work and did important things – discovered planets, developed products, created laws – and women stayed home and raised children… she also knew that plenty of women did want children and a career. And what was wrong with that? Nothing. It was exactly what men got." All that she encounters is obstacles.
Four years on, Elizabeth is a single mother starring in the most unconventional cooking show that American TV has ever seen and, despite lots of (male) objections, she has a devout following. What makes many of the men in charge uncomfortable are her freely-shared frank opinions and her encouragement of women wanting to follow their dreams.
Garmus tells her story through multiple narrators, one of whom is Elizabeth's clever dog, Six-Thirty, and she often gives them wise words and insightful observations. While her description of sexual harassment may be confronting for some readers, Garmus also manages to include a few scenes that will bring a lump to the throat, and a generous amount of humour, some of it quite black, much of it laugh-out-loud.
Her depiction of the late fifties and early sixties will definitely resonate with readers of a certain vintage, who may have experienced similar: "With the exception of [a select few], she only ever seemed to bring out the worst in men. They either wanted to control her, touch her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to do. She didn't understand why they couldn't just treat her as a fellow human being, as a colleague, a friend, an equal, or even a stranger on the street, someone to whom one is automatically respectful until you find out they've buried a bunch of bodies in the backyard." Funny, moving and thought-provoking, this is a brilliant debut.
Available Copies
Lessons in Chemistry (Signed Stamped True First Edition with stencilled edges and extra scene)
by Bonnie Garmus
- Condition
- New
- Jacket Condition
- New
- Edition
- 1st Edition 1st Printing
- Published
- 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
St Albans, Hertfordshire, GBR
- Item Price
-
$332.87
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: The multi-million-copy bestseller
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9781804990926
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex, GBR
- Item Price
-
$11.38
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel ~ SIGNED
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- New
- Jacket Condition
- New
- Edition
- Hardcover Signed First
- Published
- 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Daphne, Alabama, USA
- Item Price
-
$79.00
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- New
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Item Price
-
$17.49
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: The multi-million-copy bestseller
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used - Acceptable
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9780857528124
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex, GBR
- Item Price
-
$2.65
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- New
- Published
- 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Leland, North Carolina, USA
- Item Price
-
$18.95
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: The multi-million-copy bestseller
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9781804990926
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex, GBR
- Item Price
-
$11.38
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
- Condition
- NEW
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9781804990926
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Kolkata, West Bengal, IND
- Item Price
-
$14.84
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: The No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller and BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used; Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780857528124
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Milton Keynes , Buckinghamshire, GBR
- Item Price
-
$4.37
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel
by Bonnie Garmus
- Condition
- New
- Jacket Condition
- New
- Published
- 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
- Item Price
-
$45.00
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: The multi-million-copy bestseller
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780857528124
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex, GBR
- Item Price
-
$2.74
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used: Good
- Published
- 2022-04-05
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
HOUSTON, Texas, USA
- Item Price
-
$10.54
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used - Near Fine+
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine+
- Edition
- First Edition/First Printing
- Published
- 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
dallas, Texas, USA
- Item Price
-
$225.00
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: The multi-million-copy bestseller
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN
- 9780857528124
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex, GBR
- Item Price
-
$2.74
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
- Condition
- New
- Jacket Condition
- New
- Edition
- 14th printing
- Published
- 2022
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Dowagiac, Michigan, USA
- Item Price
-
$26.00
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel
by Bonnie Garmus
- Condition
- New
- Jacket Condition
- New
- Published
- April 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Item Price
-
$37.00
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Like New
- Jacket Condition
- Like New
- Published
- 2022-04-04
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Cortland, Ohio, USA
- Item Price
-
$11.00
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- Published
- 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
south dartmouth, Massachusetts, USA
- Item Price
-
$24.99
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel
by Garmus, Bonnie
- Condition
- New
- ISBN
- 9780385547345
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Item Price
-
$35.26
Show Details
Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
- Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good+
- Edition
- First edition/first printing
- Published
- 2022
- Binding
- Hardcover in jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Murrieta , California, USA
- Item Price
-
$100.00