Lessons in Chemistry (Garmus)

Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus (2022)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a pandemic book club pick. It received a mixed but mostly positive reviews.

I watched the series while I was waiting for the book to become available at the library. I think I'm glad that I did it in that order. For one thing, it preparted me for the intelligent dog that was abandoned from the military. For another, had I read the book first, I might've been bothered by some of the changes made for the book, including an entire subplot that was created for the show.

Elizabeth Zott is a chemist except that she doesn't have her PhD because of an incident in school. She stabbed the mentor who tried sexually assaulted her and then wouldn't apologize for hurting him. She works as an asistant at the only place that would hire her, Hastings Research Institute. There she meets their star chemist, Calvin Evans, who mistakes her at first for a secretary. The two become involved and fall in love. He then dies, but only after a) putting her name on the deed to his home, and b) getting her pregnant despite their precautions. Neither wanted children and Elizabeth did not wish to be married and change her name.

With Calvin no longer present, the powers that be at Hastings make her life miserable and she is finally let go when it's discovered that she's pregnant (and unmarried, too!). She makes money consulting with the chemists who bring work to her.

She gives birth to Mad, aka, Madeline and tries to balance motherhood with everything else, including building a lab in her kitchen. This is how she meets her neighbor from across the street, Harriet Sloane. A few years later, Mad is in school (early because of some document alteration). Mad is given her lunch to another girl who is the daughter of a TV producer, who is coincidentally looking for a new TV show to fill a void in the afternoon. When he's confronted by Elizabeth, he realizes that she could host a cooking show for the network. She finally agrees for the money.

Zott is difficult to work with because she won't confirm to how things are done. Despite this, her show is a big hit, even though the head of the studio wants to get rid of her.

I enjoyed the book for the most part, and can appreciate some of the changes that were made in the series. I prefer the younger Mr. Pine of the show.

My book group's reception was mixed but more positive. Many of them would've liked more of the cooking show than all the backstory we have to sit through. And when Mad has a family tree assignment and wants to find out more about her father's past, that might've been the time to discover everything about Calvin.

One thing I have been told by editors in rejections for some of my short stories (and sometimes I get an extra sentence or two) is that they want to see the growth of the protagonist. Well, Elizabeth Zott doesn't grow. At all. If any, she becomes more annoying because she seems stuck in the same rut with the same outlook she had 300 pages earlier. (And this is the opinon of the female members of the book club.) Everything eventually falls into place for her with a lot of luck and sheer coincidence. (Some of the coincidence gets a little bit explained, mind you, but it's still a bit out there.)

When asked how we would describe the character, I said, "Sheldon without the support network." I later thought of Temperance Brennan ("Bones"). Both of those characters were highly intelligent but lacking in social skills and somewhat unaware of how to act in certain situations. The two with better support networks grew over the course of their TV shows many seasons. In contrast, the only change we see in Zott is that she might go from being unaware how things actually work and knowing but not giving a damn. She will never budge an inch -- we assumed because she felt owed by this point. If she feels it's the right thing to do, that is all she will do, regardless of the consequences. Luckily, most of the times, things work out. And when they don't, she can pull a huge kitchen knife from her bag to give some a heart attack.

I enjoyed it, but it wasn't as good as it could've been.