Advertisement

Supported by

Beneath Its Pink Cover, ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ Offers a Story About Power

The best-selling debut author Bonnie Garmus created Elizabeth Zott, a chemist battling a sexist 1950s establishment, as the role model she craved — and found that readers wanted the same.

  • Share full article

review book lessons in chemistry

By Sadie Stein

There’s a scene early on in Bonnie Garmus’s novel “Lessons in Chemistry” in which Elizabeth Zott, a redoubtable chemist thwarted at every turn by a hidebound 1950s establishment, is given career advice by a male colleague: “Don’t work the system. Outsmart it.” Zott, for her part, “didn’t like the notion that systems had to be outsmarted. Why couldn’t they just be smart in the first place?”

The ascent of “Lessons in Chemistry” — a book whose success is the stuff publishing dreams are made of — begs the same question.

The United States edition, with its bubble gum pink cover bearing a stylized woman’s face peering over a pair of cat-eye sunglasses, reads as overtly feminine, a light beach read for a day off. One can, of course, read any number of things at the beach. But some readers, at least, have been surprised to open it and find the story of Zott, a brilliant woman whose fetching chignon is secured by a sharp No. 2 pencil also intended to ward off sexual assault.

Although she’s not interested in celebrity, Zott becomes the face of a cooking show through which she educates her viewers in chemistry, self-worth and agency. Ultimately, she triumphs through hard work and pragmatism, and by using the media available to women of her era to new ends. It is hard not to read “Lessons in Chemistry” and wonder if Zott’s creator has achieved something similarly subversive, offering readers more substance than some, at least, expected — and changing their lives in the process.

Aiming the novel at a female readership is “a bit pigeonholing,” said James Daunt, the chief executive of Barnes & Noble. But ultimately, he added, “the book has dominated the cover.”

In its brief life — “Lessons in Chemistry” was released in April, in the United States and Britain, by Doubleday — the book has become an international success, with six months on best seller lists in the United States and rights sold in 40 countries. Last week it was named Barnes & Noble’s book of the year, and this week, one of Amazon’s top 20 books of the year. There is a series in production on Apple TV+, starring and executive-produced by Brie Larson. It is on track to be the best-selling debut novel of 2022.

The dissonance between the implicit promise of the book’s American cover and its contents — besides its serious themes, the book contains a good deal of rowing, to say nothing of the sections narrated by the family dog, Six-Thirty — has meant Garmus has, at times, had to answer questions from readers. The covers in other markets (primary colors in Britain, sober in Germany, surreal in Estonia) paint a different picture.

Despite its candy shell, the book is “not sweet,” said the elegant and soft-spoken Garmus, 65, in an interview during a whirlwind November trip to New York from London, where she lives with her husband.

She has received “hate mail” from a few indignant readers who expected something different, she recalled, laughing. “They were like, ‘You’re the worst romance novelist ever!’”

On its face, “Lessons in Chemistry” might look like an overnight success story: A career copywriter experiences some “garden variety misogyny” one day at work, takes her anger out on the page and catches the eye of an agent, who offers representation on the strength of three chapters. The book goes to auction; bidding wars ensue; the novel comes out and surpasses expectations.

“I sent it out on a Tuesday,” Garmus’s agent in Britain, Felicity Blunt, said of the manuscript, “and by Wednesday morning I was getting emails that were coming in faster, faster, faster.” Blunt had to forbid Garmus from stress-exercising on her rowing machine — a habit the author shares with her main character — so that she could be reached.

In fact, it all took a great deal of work. “Part of the reality behind the myth of an overnight success,” said Garmus’s American agent, Jennifer Joel, “is that most people have actually been toiling, laboriously and diligently, in an unseen way, for years.”

Garmus had endured nearly 100 rejections of prior projects. Blunt, who worked with Garmus to massage the manuscript and gave the title a crucial tweak — it was originally called “Introduction to Chemistry” — to broaden its reach, credits Garmus’s many years as a copywriter for the precision of her prose and her ability to work collaboratively.

“She had gone over each of those lines,” Blunt said, “but you couldn’t see the cracks because it hadn’t been overworked.”

Many of those involved in the process, from agents to her editor, Lee Boudreaux, to the booksellers who’ve enthusiastically hand-sold copies across the country, expressed a similar reaction: They immediately wanted to share the book with people they knew. For Boudreaux, it was with her mother-in-law; for Daunt, the Barnes & Noble chief executive, it was with his daughters. “So many people say, ‘I gave it to my mother, my husband, my children’ — it’s a book for everyone,” said Todd Doughty, senior vice president of publicity and communications at Knopf Doubleday.

Garmus spent the bulk of her childhood in Riverside, Calif., before her father’s work as an entomologist took the family overseas. Before becoming a homemaker, her mother had been a nurse. “I hadn’t really appreciated how many limits had been imposed on that generation until I started doing the research,” Garmus said, describing how she became aware of what it meant to women, “giving up your career, and then being called average all the time.”

Garmus is adamant that the uncompromising Zott — glamorous, tough, relentlessly logical — is not based on any one person, but said that the book is something of “a love letter to scientists and the scientific brain.” She never wanted to be a scientist herself, she said, but worked for a few years at a science textbook company, and “admired the fact that they were going after this world that we hadn’t yet understood.” Garmus’s husband is a scientist, as well.

The title also communicates the author’s genuine enthusiasm for pedagogy. “We should treat science education like we do reading,” she said, and “have kids experimenting and failing at an early age and getting used to getting past failure.”

For this novel, Garmus learned chemistry from a 1950s text written several years before the novel’s setting, to avoid anachronisms. “Bonnie has such integrity,” Blunt said, “and absolute discipline and very high standards. She’s happy to own that. She’s right, without embarrassment.”

While there’s an element of luck to any such commercial triumph, the timing seems to have been crucial to this one. Whether it’s the book’s characters, its messaging or the escape to a time when the feminist discussion was less fraught, readers are hungry for it.

“Look, there have been a lot of hard things about our lives these past couple of years,” Joel said. “And the little bit of escapism that comes from walking around in somebody else’s shoes for a little while and seeing them rise and overcome and sort of get justice and find happiness … Perhaps we could use more of it.”

As Garmus puts it, she wrote the character she needed. “I felt like I was writing my own role model, and so she came easily.”

Based on the letters Garmus receives, “Lessons in Chemistry” has struck a chord with a wide swath of readers, although the American cover might have scared off a few men. Garmus recalls talking to an all-male book group whose members were initially dissuaded by the novel’s Jordan-almond palette.

“But as I’m fond of saying,” Garmus said, “the book isn’t anti-men, it’s anti-sexism.”

The irony, as some readers have pointed out to Garmus, is that Zott would have hated being portrayed looking coyly flirtatious. Ultimately, Garmus said, “I think you have to listen to your publisher, and they have a lot of experience.”

“Lessons in Chemistry” is a book that defies easy categorization and which, depending on which of its suitors had won, or which direction the winning house had decided to take, might have gone a number of ways. For the same reason, it appeals to a range of readers. And whether because of the cover or in spite of it, the book hit its mark; sales are off the charts. Even the kind of rowing machine Zott uses has seen a spike in sales. And the book is now being added to syllabuses: One high-school teacher, says Garmus, is making her students read “Lessons in Chemistry” for a class on the American dream.

What surprised Garmus the most about the book’s success, she said, has been readers’ reports of how “Lessons in Chemistry” spurred them to change their lives.

“People have quit their jobs and gone back to school or people have gotten divorced because they recognize themselves,” Garmus said. “Sometimes I want to say, ‘You know it’s fiction, right?’ But on the other hand, it was what I was trying to get across. You can really do what you need to do. You just have to dig in really hard and not expect it to be very easy.”

Zott is a catalyst, she adds. “She’s actively breaking and creating new bonds. And that is chemistry at its most basic.” And the U.S. paperback’s cover, she said, will “look different.”

An earlier version of this article misstated Bonnie Garmus’s age. She is 65, not 58. Also, the original title of the book was “Introduction to Chemistry,” not “Chemistry Lessons.” 

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of an actor; she is Brie Larson, not Larsen. The error was repeated in a picture caption.

How we handle corrections

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

James Baldwin wrote with the kind of clarity that was as comforting as it was chastising. His writing — pointed, critical, angry — is imbued with love. Here’s where to start with his works .

After nationwide protests over racial inequality led publishers to promise they would reshape their overwhelmingly white industry, a survey showed they made little progress toward a more diverse publishing work force .

Aaron Lansky spent a lifetime building the Yiddish Book Center, one of the country’s leading Jewish cultural institutions. He’s ready to hand over the reins .

For three decades, the iconographer Mark Doox has explored anti-Blackness in America and in the church. That work has culminated in a book, “The N-Word of God.”

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

At age 64, debut novelist Bonnie Garmus makes the case for experience

Garmus’s novel ‘lessons in chemistry’ delivers an assured voice, an indelible heroine and relatable love stories.

review book lessons in chemistry

Like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Judith Krantz , Bonnie Garmus is a latecomer to the literary scene. This week she publishes her first book — the sparkling novel “ Lessons in Chemistry ” — days shy of her 65th birthday. Hurray for this! If we’re going to continually fuss over newly minted MFA wunderkinds landing two-book deals, let us also raise a glass — or, better yet, Garmus’s book — in honor of this rarer breed of first-time novelists.

With “Lessons in Chemistry,” Garmus, a venerable copywriter and creative director, delivers an assured voice, an indelible heroine and several love stories — that of a mother for her daughter, a woman for science, a dog for a child, and between a woman and man.

We need comic novels more than ever. So where are they?

At the center of the novel is Elizabeth Zott, a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention, “a woman with flawless skin and an unmistakable demeanor of someone who was not average and never would be.” (Is it any wonder that Oscar-winner Brie Larson is set to play her in an Apple TV Plus “Lessons” series that she will also executive produce?)

The novel is set in the early 1960s in the mythical Southern California town of Commons where, it appears, few people are. Being a woman in science is a hard, lonely road. Elizabeth becomes a national somebody not in the lab but as a kitchen savant on a local afternoon television show called “Supper at Six.” Her nutritious dishes are doused in chemistry with a heaping side order of female empowerment.

“When women understand chemistry," she explains to a reporter, “they understand how things work." Science offers “the real rules that govern the physical world. When women understand these basic concepts, they can begin to see the false limits that have been created for them.” It’s better living through casseroles.

A decade earlier, Elizabeth met Nobel-nominated chemist and master grudge-holder Calvin Evans at the Hastings Research Institute, where he is a star and she is not because, well, sexism. They fit because they don’t anywhere else. Garmus has packed her novel with rowing (“As any non-rower can tell you, rowers are not fun. This is because rowers only ever want to talk about rowing”), heartache, corporate malfeasance and, that most relished and rarest of real-life events, a humiliating comeuppance.

Women are over the underwire bra

Elizabeth is a feminist and modern thinker. She has little talent for ingratiating herself with other people. It is Elizabeth, not her equally eccentric and stubborn swain, who refuses to wed “because I can’t risk having my scientific contributions submerged beneath your name.” Her obstinance, becoming an unwed mother at a time when they were shunted elsewhere, creates a heap of trouble for her in a world nowhere ready for her mind, character or ambition.

There is an infectious absurdity to the book and its hero. Here’s Elizabeth discussing the hydrogen chemical bond on a show ostensibly about dinner: “I call this the ‘love at first sight’ bond because both parties are drawn to each other based solely on visual information: you like his smile, he likes your hair. But then you talk and discover he’s a closet Nazi and thinks women complain too much. Poof. Just like that the delicate bond is broken. That’s the hydrogen bond for you ladies — a chemical reminder that if things are too good to be true, they probably are.”

Then, with her knife, she takes a “Paul Bunyan swing” at an onion. “It’s chicken pot pie night,” she declares. “Let’s get started.”

Could “Lessons” have been a few instructions tauter? Certainly. Garmus knows her characters from the initial pages. There’s little need to keep informing readers how exceptional they are or how adamant Elizabeth is in pursuing her truth. Also, every dog may have its day, but that doesn’t mean he need scamper through a novel as an astute fictional character. “ Welcome to life on the outside! How was your trip? Please, come in, come in! I’ve got chalk! ” These are the musings of Elizabeth’s dog, Six-Thirty (a nod to the time he joined the family) as he welcomes baby Madeleine into his world.

Still, Garmus manages to charm. She’s created an indelible assemblage of stubborn, idiosyncratic characters. She’s given us a comic novel at precisely the moment we crave one. Perhaps, in her next effort, Garmus will provide a heroine who is more her peer, someone who would be a perfect role for, say, Emma Thompson or Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Karen Heller is national features writer for Style.

Lessons in Chemistry

By Bonnie Garmus

Doubleday. 400 pp. $29

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

review book lessons in chemistry

  • Entertainment
  • <i>Lessons in Chemistry</i> Feels Like a Remedial Course in Feminist History

Lessons in Chemistry Feels Like a Remedial Course in Feminist History

review book lessons in chemistry

E lizabeth Zott is not like other girls. In fact, maybe don’t call her a girl. The heroine of Lessons in Chemistry is an adult woman and a brilliant chemist whose relentlessly logical mind demands precision. Also, with good reason, she doesn’t take kindly to being infantilized. Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s story—as told in Bonnie Garmus’ wildly popular 2022 novel and a new, eight-part Apple TV+ series starring Brie Larson —takes place in the 1950s. So you can be sure she’ll have to endure a whole heap of sexism to get the respect, let alone the career, she deserves.

Your enjoyment of Apple’s sometimes charming but more often didactic, weirdly unfocused adaptation, premiering Oct. 13, is likely to vary depending on whether you find stories about plucky underdogs triumphing over adversity inspiring or exhausting. Personally, I’m not sure American women are in a position to look back at the overt misogyny (and, elsewhere in Chemistry , racism and homophobia) of the recent past as an obstacle course we can congratulate ourselves for clearing. Then again, maybe that’s not the show’s intention at all. For all its preaching to the converted—and all its invocations of elemental conflicts, like science vs. religion and self vs. community— Chemistry leaves its most ambitious questions unanswered.

To the extent that series works, it’s because Larson so thoroughly inhabits Elizabeth. A genius with little use for social conventions or niceties, the character is confident without being arrogant, and somewhat awkward in disposition but ultimately charming in her authenticity. (Many readers have speculated that Elizabeth is on the autism spectrum.) Her stiff comportment loosens up as her initially lonely existence gives way to a number of meaningful relationships. This subtle transformation, even more than her rise from disrespected lab tech to unlikely cooking-show sensation, forms the through-line of a narrative prone to clumsy digressions.

review book lessons in chemistry

Although we’ll eventually witness her sad childhood as a preacher’s daughter in ’30s Alabama, Elizabeth’s story begins at the Hastings Research Institute in Southern California. A chemist with a Master’s from UCLA, she performs menial lab chores for mediocre men whose dialogue comes straight out of Ye Olde Chauvinist’s Book of Commonplaces : “A smile once in a while wouldn’t hurt.” “Sweetheart, I could use another cup o’ joe.” Etc. They all but force her to compete in a humiliating “Little Miss Hastings” beauty pageant. As if that wasn’t enough oppression for one woman, Chemistry piles on a layer of sexual trauma. It turns out that Elizabeth never got her PhD because she refused to apologize to the advisor she stabbed (with a pencil) to thwart his (nauseatingly energetic) attempt to rape her (after a qualifying exam).

Things finally start to look up when she meets Hastings’ other oddball. A chemist of national renown, Calvin Evans ( Outer Range ’s Lewis Pullman) has the influence to indulge his eccentricities—hence the private lab, where he hops in the safety shower after jogging to work. Like Elizabeth, he speaks the terse language of the constitutionally rational. And he sees that the research she’s surreptitiously conducting has the potential to break ground. He’s baffled to learn that sexism has kept her from advancing in a supposedly meritocratic field. “Why would someone discriminate based on something as intellectually non-determinative as gender?” Calvin wonders. (Why indeed!) So he invites her to work alongside him. Soon, they fall in love.

review book lessons in chemistry

Fast-forward seven years and several spoiler-y twists of fate, and an unemployed Elizabeth—a talented cook who treats the kitchen like a lab—stumbles upon a big opportunity. A local TV station needs a cooking-show host, and though she doesn’t exactly crave fame, she needs the money. Her presence on Supper at 6 , where she calls ingredients by their chemical names and takes the preparation of food seriously as work, is something utterly new. And she usually has the fortitude to defy a piggish executive (played by Rainn Wilson ) who wants her to endorse shoddy sponsor products and has ideas like: “At the end of each show, she should make her husband a cocktail.” Men tend to hate Supper , but women love it. Elizabeth becomes a celebrity.

This is easily the most intriguing facet of her story. In one memorable scene, during an on-air Q&A with her adoring studio audience, a housewife asks a perceptive question about human biochemistry. Elizabeth senses that the woman has the aptitude to become a physician, and tells her so. Months later, the fan returns to say she’s enrolled in medical school. While this particular sequence of events feels a bit pat, the show is most original when it’s imagining the effect a woman as intelligent, self-assured, and liberated as Elizabeth might have on less extraordinary women, who may be too ensconced in their gender roles to aspire to a life outside the home. But Chemistry hops around too much to explore this aspect of her fame in any depth.

Episodes meander away from one another, cordoned off by puzzling one-off stylistic and structural decisions. One is narrated by Elizabeth’s dog, Six-Thirty (he’s named after the time at which he wakes her up every morning). Another spends an inordinate amount of time with a little girl we’re led to believe is someone she turns out not to be; the payoff of this misdirection is negligible. A coincidence-driven dive into Calvin’s childhood derails Elizabeth’s arc too late in the series, which has the effect of rushing the central story towards an overly tidy conclusion.

review book lessons in chemistry

This lack of focus extends to characters and themes, as well. A woman introduced as a traitor to her gender returns, fully reformed, a few episodes later. Calvin’s neighbor Harriet Sloan (Aja Naomi King from How to Get Away With Murder ) comes into the picture early. A bright legal aide, she’s organizing members of their largely Black, middle-class enclave in a campaign to stop the construction of a freeway through the community—one that local politicians have labeled “blighted” despite its obvious affluence. Yet neither her crusade nor her family are well integrated into the central narrative. Often, her presence feels like a test of Calvin or Elizabeth’s allyship. “You’re always talking about the things that keep women down, but who does that include?” she asks Elizabeth. It doesn’t help that the end of her story line is so abrupt.

Chemistry clearly wants to wrestle with big, important ideas. But if Greta Gerwig ’s Barbie was Feminism 101, this adult-oriented drama is teaching lessons about social justice better suited to middle school. Unlike the fascinatingly flawed heroine of The Queen’s Gambit , another exceptional-woman saga set in the mid-20th century, Elizabeth comes across as too perfect, too good, too pure. The same goes for Harriet. They are women’s liberation and, in Harriet’s case, the civil rights movement, run through the fine-mesh sieve of respectability politics. Elizabeth and Calvin’s empirically minded atheism is often challenged by Christian characters—some generous true believers and others cruel charlatans. But the show never satisfyingly synthesizes these conversations. It lets the question of how faith and science can coexist hang.

In the end, Elizabeth does a lot of talking about “the inevitability of change.” This takeaway suggests that the outlandishness of many twists—and the series’ hyperactive structure—were intentional. I don’t doubt it, but TV drama is a narrative medium, and a better show would have found a way to craft a cohesive one about the randomness of life. It would have made space to fully investigate complicated themes, instead of dropping them into the void. It would’ve given us a complex protagonist, not an avatar of righteousness designed to star in adversity porn. Maybe that’s expecting too much from the TV adaptation of last year’s biggest beach read. Something tells me, though, that Elizabeth Zott would prefer honest scrutiny to polite condescension.  

More Must-Reads From TIME

  • Inside the White House Program to Share America's Secrets
  • Meet the 2024 Women of the Year
  • East Palestine, One Year After Train Derailment
  • The Closers: 18 People Working to End the Racial Wealth Gap
  • Long COVID Doesn’t Always Look Like You Think It Does
  • Column: The New Antisemitism
  • The 13 Best New Books to Read in March
  • Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

You May Also Like

Profile Picture

  • ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

avatar

Awards & Accolades

Readers Vote

Our Verdict

Our Verdict

Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2022

New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

by Bonnie Garmus ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 2022

A more adorable plea for rationalism and gender equality would be hard to find.

Two chemists with major chemistry, a dog with a big vocabulary, and a popular cooking show are among the elements of this unusual compound.

At the dawn of the 1960s, Elizabeth Zott finds herself in an unexpected position. She's the star of a television program called Supper at Six that has taken American housewives by storm, but it's certainly not what the crass station head envisions: “ 'Meaningful?' Phil snapped. 'What are you? Amish? As for nutritious: no. You’re killing the show before it even gets started. Look, Walter, it’s easy. Tight dresses, suggestive movements...then there’s the cocktail she mixes at the end of every show.' ” Elizabeth is a chemist, recently forced to leave the lab where she was doing important research due to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Now she's reduced to explaining things like when to put the steak in the pan. "Be sure and wait until the butter foams. Foam indicates that the butter’s water content has boiled away. This is critical. Because now the steak can cook in lipids rather than absorb H2O.” If ever a woman was capable of running her own life, it's Elizabeth. But because it's the 1950s, then the '60s, men have their sweaty paws all over both her successes and failures. On the plus side, there's Calvin Evans, world-famous chemist, love of her life, and father of her child; also Walter Pine, her friend who works in television; and a journalist who at least tries to do the right thing. At the other pole is a writhing pile of sexists, liars, rapists, dopes, and arrogant assholes. This is the kind of book that has a long-buried secret at a corrupt orphanage with a mysterious benefactor as well as an extremely intelligent dog named Six-Thirty, recently retired from the military. ("Not only could he never seem to sniff out the bomb in time, but he also had to endure the praise heaped upon the smug German shepherds who always did.") Garmus' energetic debut also features an invigorating subplot about rowing.

Pub Date: April 5, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-385-54734-5

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022

LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

Share your opinion of this book

More About This Book

‘GMA’ Picks ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ for Book Club

SEEN & HEARD

Fiction About Jobs? It’s Rarer Than You Think

PERSPECTIVES

Barnes &amp; Noble Names Top 10 Books of 2022

Pulitzer Prize Winner

DEMON COPPERHEAD

by Barbara Kingsolver ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022

An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.

Inspired by David Copperfield , Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South.

It’s not necessary to have read Dickens’ famous novel to appreciate Kingsolver’s absorbing tale, but those who have will savor the tough-minded changes she rings on his Victorian sentimentality while affirming his stinging critique of a heartless society. Our soon-to-be orphaned narrator’s mother is a substance-abusing teenage single mom who checks out via OD on his 11th birthday, and Demon’s cynical, wised-up voice is light-years removed from David Copperfield’s earnest tone. Yet readers also see the yearning for love and wells of compassion hidden beneath his self-protective exterior. Like pretty much everyone else in Lee County, Virginia, hollowed out economically by the coal and tobacco industries, he sees himself as someone with no prospects and little worth. One of Kingsolver’s major themes, hit a little too insistently, is the contempt felt by participants in the modern capitalist economy for those rooted in older ways of life. More nuanced and emotionally engaging is Demon’s fierce attachment to his home ground, a place where he is known and supported, tested to the breaking point as the opiate epidemic engulfs it. Kingsolver’s ferocious indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, angrily stated by a local girl who has become a nurse, is in the best Dickensian tradition, and Demon gives a harrowing account of his descent into addiction with his beloved Dori (as naïve as Dickens’ Dora in her own screwed-up way). Does knowledge offer a way out of this sinkhole? A committed teacher tries to enlighten Demon’s seventh grade class about how the resource-rich countryside was pillaged and abandoned, but Kingsolver doesn’t air-brush his students’ dismissal of this history or the prejudice encountered by this African American outsider and his White wife. She is an art teacher who guides Demon toward self-expression, just as his friend Tommy provokes his dawning understanding of how their world has been shaped by outside forces and what he might be able to do about it.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-06-325-1922

Page Count: 560

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022

More by Barbara Kingsolver

UNSHELTERED

BOOK REVIEW

by Barbara Kingsolver

FLIGHT BEHAVIOR

THE MAN WHO LIVED UNDERGROUND

by Richard Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 20, 2021

A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.

A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.

Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son  and Black Boy , this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.

Pub Date: April 20, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Library of America

Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021

More by Richard Wright

A FATHER’S LAW

by Richard Wright

AMERICAN HUNGER

BOOK TO SCREEN

  • Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
  • News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
  • Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
  • Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
  • Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
  • More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
  • About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Go To Top

Popular in this Genre

Close Quickview

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Sign in with Google

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

  • Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

review book lessons in chemistry

Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

review book lessons in chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is a dazzling story about one woman’s fight against misogyny.

I try to read many of the celebrity book club picks and after finishing True Biz by Sara Novic (Reese’s April Book Club Pick), I decided to try Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (GMA April Book Club Pick). I’ve seen so many glowing reviews for the novel and my expectations were sky high. And it delivered. I quite enjoyed it and I thought the ending is extremely satisfying.

But I will say it did take me a bit to get into the story. Longer than I expected. I actually felt the story really took off when the TV cooking show part began.

What’s the Story About

Lessons in Chemistry follows Elizabeth Zott: a one-of-a-kind scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.

Elizabeth has dealt with it all. Plenty of misogyny and people doubting her skills. All she wants to do is work on her scientific research but the patriarchy keeps standing in her way. Everything changes for Elizabeth when the most unlikely event happens—she falls in love with a fellow scientist, Calvin. 

But as life is unpredictable, Elizabeth eventually finds herself as a single mother and without a job. Through an extraordinary set of events, she ends up becoming the host of a TV cooking show. And while she takes cooking very seriously, she also embarks plenty of lessons to her mostly female audience.

Elizabeth’s Story

Elizabeth is such an engaging protagonist. I don’t think I’ve ever read one quite like her before. She’s extremely serious and to the point. She’s very intelligent and tired of dealing with other people’s bad behavior. Elizabeth shows her vulnerable side only on rare occasions.

While the story is quirky and the writing is clever and humorous at parts, there are some serious topics addressed. Including a couple scenes that deserve a trigger warning, which I did not anticipate. I do think the cover, while cute, is a bit misleading in some ways.

I liked reading about Elizabeth’s journey and what she is able to overcome is inspiring. However, I would have liked to have seen more scenes with her daughter. And I do think it took too long to arrive at the TV show component.

I will say, the supporting cast is outstanding—probably one of the best I’ve read in a long time.

Supper at Six

You’ll be entertained by how Elizabeth got herself a cooking show! And she does not want to follow any direction from her producer, Walter. She takes matters in her own hands and combines her love and knowledge of chemistry to teach her audience how to cook and much more. Each episode serves as a life lesson of some sorts.

I felt this part was so vivid that it almost felt like it was a real show! I can’t only imagine the impact if a show like this had existed in the ’60s.

All in all, I really liked the novel. Not a perfect execution but I do think it’s a unique and very entertaining story.

For book clubs, check out my discussion questions here .

You May Also Like

review book lessons in chemistry

Thursday 13th of July 2023

There should be a way to raise $ for girls in America,so they can read, go to school,college,and travel making a good life for themselves and their children,if they choose. Idiots are making $ on crap,and don't give a damn about these kids in mediocre to awful situations. A collection plate for any kid that wants a better education and life in America, esp in these impoverished poor school systems. Earned scholarships for girls,all they have to do is want it. (Their fairy godmothers will pay for 75-90%.).July2023.not 1923.

Paula Moroz

Friday 4th of November 2022

The show became so real I almost began to search the TV schedule for the time! I liked the "Children set the table" sign off.

  • Commenting Policy
  • Advanced Search

Dear Author

Romance, Historical, Contemporary, Paranormal, Young Adult, Book reviews, industry news, and commentary from a reader's point of view

REVIEW: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

review book lessons in chemistry

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results. But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo. Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

CW – Misogyny, rape, domestic violence

Dear Ms. Garmus,

As I headed down the backstretch of reading “Lessons in Chemistry,” I kept thinking “Don’t lose me right at the end. It’s been so good up until now. Please, please don’t fuck this up!” When I read the final page, I sighed with relief. YES. It stayed excellent, and darkly humorous, and it gets my recommendation for readers to go read this book.

Wow, I almost don’t know where to start. I guess I should first mention that I’m sure a lot of readers will hate this book. It has omniscient voice – thus allowing us to know Six-Thirty’s thoughts among others, a non-linear timeline, it has a strong female character (YAY) who endures terrible misogyny up to and including forced penetration on page (only once as Elizabeth always carries her secret weapon and used it), domestic violence to another female character, loss of a loved one, and the sad history of another young woman done wrong. Plus there are the thwarted dreams and goals of women of the 1950s and 1960s. There are some heartbreaking things that happen in this book. Some people might also view the positive things that happen as wish fulfillment. To that I say – I loved it. Young women of today – this is what your mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers had to fight against. This is what they triumphed over to give me and you our chances.

“Lessons in Chemistry” is more of a women’s fiction book but it does have a strong romance in it. As the book opens, we see Elizabeth Zott carefully preparing her daughter’s lunch and writing inspirational notes to put in Madeline, aka “Mad’s,” lunchbox. Elizabeth doesn’t include sappy stuff like “Be Good,” or “Hang in There.” Oh, no. This is the kind of thing that goes in – “Play sports at recess but do not automatically let the boys win.” Madeline listens to her mother but she also tries to fit in at school because she’s seen what her mother – who has never fit in – has to deal with.

Brilliant Elizabeth first meets the love of her life when she (a lowly, underpaid chemist at the only place that would hire her) arrives at the enormous and well stocked lab of the famous Calvin Evans (who is on the cover of chemistry magazines) and steals a box of his beakers. Another not-so-meet-cute later and he’s in love (with her brains as well as her body) but can’t get her to look at him twice. Until she also begins to fall for him although she won’t marry him because if she does, all her research would be thought to be his and all her possible discoveries would be presumed to be his. She would lose her identity and become merely Mrs. Calvin Evans. To every argument of his, she has a zippy rejoinder (and continues to zap men’s silly statements for the rest of the book). She’ll live in sin with him and be deliriously happy doing so (gasp! in the early 1950s!) but she is her own person and will not be subsumed.

All too soon though, she is on her own, facing being a single mother with no support structure. How she stands up, maintains her poise, and meets every battle head on while inspiring first a child and then a city, and then a nation of women who are usually dismissed as just housewives made me almost cry with delight. No, it isn’t an easy row to hoe. Yes, Elizabeth faces constant belittlement from her male peers, demands to wear tight dresses on camera before mixing a cocktail at the end of her show, as well as threats for speaking her truth and never backing down. But Elizabeth is a force of nature and will not hide who she is. She is a boxer who just won’t stay down. At times while I was reading, Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman” played on a repeat loop in my mind.

Elizabeth isn’t the only fantastic character. There is Mad, her daughter who has been raised to ask questions, demand the truth, and who learns resilience from her mother. Okay so Mad might be a little bit precocious but given the brilliance of her parents and her mother’s self confidence and determination, I was on board. Harriet, the tough and practical neighbor across the street, finds her own strength and willingness to voice her thoughts on more than children. Walter Pine, the producer of Elizabeth’s cooking – sorry, chemistry – show discovers a backbone and how to be a better person, the staff and crew of “Supper at Six” have far better working lives after Elizabeth manages (oh, the scene was brilliant) to send off the asshat producer who misjudged her, a conflicted minister helps right a wrong, and a family tree is finally filled out. And there’s a dog who failed in one duty but found his family at Six-Thirty one evening whose thoughts we are privy to. Don’t mock this. Six-Thirty has some important things to think about and flawless judgement of character.

The plotting of the novel is precise and careful in ways that don’t have events or statements highlighted in a “This Is An Important Moment/Clue!” way. The reader must trust that it is all important and will eventually make sense as it all beautifully comes together. Is the ending and justice meted out almost too good to be true or are things perhaps a little too convenient for real life? Yeah, I’ll admit that perhaps a few are but it’s not an easy journey and it’s all so good I didn’t care. The story swept me along and despite the heartache and loss, I ended it in a happy place. It’s a bit like a fairy tale but not a Disneyfied one. The characters have to endure, at times, but come through stronger, better, forged through fire. Elizabeth ends, battle tested but still standing, having held out for what she, and all women, deserve – an equal chance and respect for their accomplishments. A

Amazon BN Kobo Book Depository Google

Share this:

review book lessons in chemistry

Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 25 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there's no TSTL characters and is currently reading more fantasy and SciFi.

review book lessons in chemistry

Wow. Great review. Sounds like a fabulous book, worth reading through its heartache and loss, two emotions I avoid like the plague.

review book lessons in chemistry

@ LML : If you decide to read it, I hope you enjoy it despite those emotions. I knew I had to include the “Warnings” paragraph because I don’t want anyone to be blindsided by some of the things that happen in the book.

review book lessons in chemistry

This sounds excellent, Jayne, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. I’m off to see if my library has it.

@ Kareni : I hope they do and if so, that they have multiple copies. The six that my library have were snapped up quickly and the wait list has begun.

review book lessons in chemistry

Sounds intriguing.

review book lessons in chemistry

This sounds amazing. Six week hold at the library of mine where it’s available earliest (California residents, I encourage you to investigate libraries in other cities—some will provide you with a card for digital materials if you are a California resident). I put it hold of course.

@Jayne: I started this yesterday and was one-more-chaptering until I finished the book at midnight. I very much enjoyed it (well, excerpt for the parts that made me sad). I received my PhD in Chemistry in the latter eighties, and the book reminded me of how grateful I need to be for women of earlier decades who fought battles that I did not.

@ Kareni : Yay! I’m glad you liked it. So I have to ask – how accurate was the chemistry in the book?

@Jayne: Bearing in mind that I’ve done nothing with Chemistry for decades, it looked good to me. I seem to recall from the author note that she had a Chemist or two read it for accuracy.

review book lessons in chemistry

Before I read this, I saw one chapter was called “Stillborn” and I am wondering if this is about stillbirth because I lost a daughter to stillbirth and don’t want to be blindsided by that.

@ Sadie’s Mom : I’m sorry for your loss. There is no actual stillbirth in the story. A young woman, who gave birth in a pre-WWII “home for promiscuous girls,” was told that her baby was stillborn. The child wasn’t stillborn but the mother didn’t discover the truth until years later after the child had been put up for adoption.

review book lessons in chemistry

I am a 76 year old retired OB/GYN. I am 46XY. I have maintained an interest in genetics. Because I purchased Code Breaker and Lifelines, Apple Books suggested this book for me. I read it in two sessions. I alternately laughed out loud, was pissed and had to stop and connect relationships. When I began UW Med School in Seattle, in 1968 there were 85 of us in the FreshMAN class. 82 men and 3 women. I probably went into Medicine and OB/GYN because of an inspiring highschool teacher who gathered a few of us to learn about DNA and the wonderful Nobel work of Watson and Crick. I have since learned that a female X-ray MD provided vital structural information for Watson and Crick to publish their ground breaking work. They became world famous…..she a footnote. Things have certainly changed from the 50s, but misogyny is alive and well. We owe our mothers, sisters. and daughters a greater effort.

@ Kurt Weis : Amen. I grew up in a family that expected its women to not only go to college but to graduate and with something besides an Mrs. degree. My mother and both of her sisters did (1950s) and I along with all of my female cousins did.

FTC Disclaimer

We do not purchase all the books we review here. Some we receive from the authors, some we receive from the publisher, and some we receive through a third party service like Net Galley . Some books we purchase ourselves. Login

Discover more from Dear Author

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

  • Newsletters
  • Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

Why Lessons in Chemistry Is the Biggest Debut Novel of the Past Year

The same ingredient that makes some readers recoil from this bestseller is also what makes it so delicious..

Bonnie Garmus’ debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry , has become one of those books you see everywhere: in the hands of subway passengers and waiting room idlers, on the nightstands of book group members, all over the realm of TikTok known as #BookTok, as Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year for 2022, and, last but not least, on the New York Times bestseller list for 58 weeks and counting. Last November, the Times noted that it was “on track to be the best-selling debut novel of 2022,” and it seems to have only sold better since. There’s also good reason to believe that it’s only going to get bigger: In October, Apple TV+ will premiere a TV series based on the novel, starring Brie Larson. Garmus, who is 66 and wrote Lessons in Chemistry after a long career as a copywriter, is living every first-time novelist’s dream.

What’s the fuss about? Chances are: not what you think. As the Times article observed, the novel’s American cover is misleading, a cartoon image of a woman side-eyeing coquettishly over a pair of cat-eye glasses against a pink background. Paired with the title, this image shouts “ STEMinist romance novel ,” a currently booming genre. But Lessons is only incidentally about romantic love. Instead, it’s the story of Elizabeth Zott, a woman chemist and single mother confronting sexism and other tribulations as she tries to pursue her vocation in the early 1960s. She stumbles into a gig hosting a chemistry-centric cooking show on daytime TV and becomes a celebrity in syndication.

Lessons in Chemistry belongs to a genre of literary fiction that could be called the quirky tragicomedy. The novel it’s most often likened to is 2012’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette , by Maria Semple, about a daughter trying to understand her mother’s abandonment. In these books, the main character has amusingly eccentric traits or interests and suffers undeniably serious losses, but the overall tone remains light, with a touch of rueful melancholy and a whole lot of brave soldiering on. After a boom in the 2000s, this style of fiction seems to be increasingly uncommon, which explains why some of today’s readers, raised on plots that milk trauma for all it’s worth, find the novel’s tone confusing.

Elizabeth, who appears to be neurodivergent in some way, gets peeved when a male colleague suggests that she learn to “outsmart” the system, because she can’t see why systems can’t just be “smart in the first place.” She knows that she lives in “a patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less,” but she indignantly refuses to acknowledge the dictates of that society. After Elizabeth becomes pregnant out of wedlock by one of the few decent men in the novel, and the head of her lab tries to fire her on moral grounds, she seems genuinely astonished, as if she is only just now finding out about the sexual double standard.

Much of the humor in Lessons in Chemistry comes from the collision of Elizabeth’s stubborn scientific rationalism with the unthinkingly conventional attitudes of everyone else. Elizabeth herself has no sense of humor. Her daughter, Madeline, is a similarly brainy prodigy who reads Norman Mailer in kindergarten, shocking her sourpuss teacher, and can’t understand why she gets in trouble for insisting that human beings are animals.

Garmus has an impressive ability to maintain a Campari-like balance of the bitter and the sugary. Elizabeth endures harrowing setbacks, not just a wall of sexism in her career but also a sexual assault and the deaths of loved ones. Trauma abounds in the sympathetic characters’ backstories. Elizabeth’s father, a charismatic religious charlatan, is in prison, and her gold-digger mother is out of the picture, run off to Latin America with her latest rich husband. Madeline’s father, an orphan, grew up in a grim Catholic boys’ school. Elizabeth’s helpful neighbor Harriet has a vile, abusive husband who expects her to tidy up his dirty magazine collection. All of Elizabeth’s bosses (with the exception of the meek producer who makes her a TV star) are insulting, domineering lechers. A more vulnerable woman would be utterly downtrodden by all this, but Elizabeth’s determined single-mindedness and indifference to what other people think of her—the same qualities that tend to alienate her colleagues—provide a kind of shield.

In counterbalance, there are Elizabeth’s improbably studious multitudes of fans, housewives who watch her show, Supper at Six , with notebooks in hand, jotting down her explanation of the hydrogen bond’s role in the cooking process. Elizabeth delivers on-screen pep talks about subsidized child care and encourages one live audience member to follow her dream and apply to medical school, to the cheers of the crowd. There is an absurdly anthropomorphized dog named Six-Thirty (for the time when Elizabeth found him on the street), a noble creature who understands hundreds of words and assists Elizabeth in her home lab. Even readers who don’t care for the rest of the novel—every very popular book inevitably reaps some detractors—adore Six-Thirty.

Call me a cat person, but Six-Thirty seems a calculated bid for reader sympathy designed to shore up the novel’s sentimental side against the harshness of Elizabeth’s life. There are sensitive readers who feel so overwhelmed by the cruelty of Elizabeth’s persecutors—complaints about the lack of trigger warnings are common—that they profess bafflement that anyone could call Lessons in Chemistry a comic novel.

But I’d argue that the novel’s bad guys are the real secrets to its success. Were all men in authority in the early ’60s so comprehensively horrid, a rogues’ gallery of bigots, rapists, plagiarists, and gaslighters? No, but a popular fairy tale—which Lessons in Chemistry most certainly is—needs a thoroughly hateable villain, and this book has several corkers. The dastardly, smug baddies of Garmus’ novel are the engines that drive her plot like a locomotive. You keep reading as much to see them defeated as to see Elizabeth win. To make that happen, Garmus resorts to a final reveal that is pure Dickens—the furthest thing from the collective action that actually made scientific careers possible for women like Elizabeth. Then again, as every Lessons in Chemistry critic ought to bear in mind, too much reality does not a bestseller make.

comscore beacon

review book lessons in chemistry

  • Humor & Entertainment

Amazon prime logo

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

  • Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
  • Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
  • Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
  • A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
  • Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
  • Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Audible Logo

Buy new: $15.37 $15.37 FREE delivery: Thursday, March 7 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

  • Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
  • Learn more about free returns.
  • Go to your orders and start the return
  • Select the return method

Buy used: $12.40

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and Amazon Prime.

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you grow your business. Learn more about the program.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Image Unavailable

Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel

  • To view this video download Flash Player

review book lessons in chemistry

Follow the author

Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel Hardcover – April 5, 2022

Purchase options and add-ons.

  • Print length 400 pages
  • Language English
  • Publisher Doubleday
  • Publication date April 5, 2022
  • Dimensions 6.46 x 1.39 x 9.53 inches
  • ISBN-10 038554734X
  • ISBN-13 978-0385547345
  • See all details

Layla

Frequently bought together

Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel

Similar items that may ship from close to you

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel

From the Publisher

Editorial reviews, amazon.com review, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; First Edition (April 5, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 038554734X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385547345
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.48 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.46 x 1.39 x 9.53 inches
  • #2 in Humorous Fiction
  • #8 in Mothers & Children Fiction
  • #11 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Videos for this product

Video Widget Card

Click to play video

Video Widget Video Title Section

Review of Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel | Worth a read?

🌟Turner Family Reviews🌟

review book lessons in chemistry

My honest review of Lessons in Chemistry.

Lisa Fought

review book lessons in chemistry

Honest Review - Lessons in Chemistry

Sarah Elftman

review book lessons in chemistry

5 Star Read! Love the strong female character in this one

Reilly’s Everyday Reviews

review book lessons in chemistry

HONEST Review of Lessons in Chemistry Book by Bonnie Garmus

review book lessons in chemistry

Watch before picking up this book!

✅ LittleMissJacob Finds

review book lessons in chemistry

lessons in chemistry book!

Mills Beato

review book lessons in chemistry

Is This Book Worth The Hype? - Lessons in Chemistry Review!

Sophia Doyle

review book lessons in chemistry

Watch Before You Buy! Lessons in Chemistry By Bonnie Garmus

Shop Essentials with Elys 💌

review book lessons in chemistry

Read the book before you watch the show, trust me

Jennifer Young

review book lessons in chemistry

Important information

To report an issue with this product or seller, click here .

About the author

review book lessons in chemistry

Bonnie Garmus

Bonnie Garmus is a copywriter and creative director who has worked for a wide range of clients, in the US and abroad, focusing primarily on technology, medicine, and education. She’s an open water swimmer, a rower, and mother to two pretty amazing daughters. Most recently from Seattle, she currently lives in London with her husband and her dog, 99.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

Customer Image

  • Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

review book lessons in chemistry

Top reviews from other countries

review book lessons in chemistry

  • Amazon Newsletter
  • About Amazon
  • Accessibility
  • Sustainability
  • Press Center
  • Investor Relations
  • Amazon Devices
  • Amazon Science
  • Start Selling with Amazon
  • Sell apps on Amazon
  • Supply to Amazon
  • Protect & Build Your Brand
  • Become an Affiliate
  • Become a Delivery Driver
  • Start a Package Delivery Business
  • Advertise Your Products
  • Self-Publish with Us
  • Host an Amazon Hub
  • › See More Ways to Make Money
  • Amazon Visa
  • Amazon Store Card
  • Amazon Secured Card
  • Amazon Business Card
  • Shop with Points
  • Credit Card Marketplace
  • Reload Your Balance
  • Amazon Currency Converter
  • Your Account
  • Your Orders
  • Shipping Rates & Policies
  • Amazon Prime
  • Returns & Replacements
  • Manage Your Content and Devices
  • Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Notice
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices

review book lessons in chemistry

  • March 1 Print Replica
  • Newsletters

Review: ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ by Bonnie Garmus

A recipe for a bestseller.

  • May 13, 2022 5:00 a.m.

Like the heroine of her much-anticipated debut novel

Longtime Seattle resident Bonnie Garmus has come out with a very popular novel. The subject of a ferocious publishers’ auction in the United States and abroad, “Lessons in Chemistry” has leapt onto bestseller lists.

It has been selected for the Good Morning America Book Club, and Garmus, now living in London, has been interviewed by KING-5, NPR and everywhere in between. The book is beloved by readers and critics alike — including a starred review from Kirkus (and Kirkus is stingy with their stars). The world of fiction has what appears to be a genuine phenomenon on its hands.

It’s easy to see why this book has become such a smash. Elizabeth Zott, our heroine, is a ferociously determined young chemist seeking the secrets to the creation of life — abiogenesis, as Zott will have it. But she has the misfortune to be a woman in the 1950s, and Zott suffers all the indignities one might imagine of a woman in her profession at the time. Her mentors at UCLA mock her, assault her and, eventually, eject her from the university without a Ph.D.

photo

Life in the industry is not much better. Zott’s colleagues at Hastings Research Institute mistake her for a secretary, and when they realize she’s a brilliant scientist, they steal her work and claim it as their own. When she becomes pregnant while unmarried, she is fired. Never mind that she’s the best, most innovative chemist at Hastings. She’s a lady, and there’s the moral question to consider. And when she suffers a terrible personal loss, she is left truly alone in a world built by men, for men, with no place for a woman of her sort.

But Garmus’ heroine is brave, original and completely unafraid. Zott rallies, recommits (as one of her mantras goes) and, ultimately, she has her revenge. And who doesn’t love a great story of revenge, especially one driven by righteous anger?

A single mother, desperate to make ends meet, Zott becomes rich and famous as the accidental star of a cooking show — but Zott is a chemist, and hers is a cooking show only a chemist could imagine. She insists a scientific tone be maintained on air. The kitchen is a laboratory. Salt is called sodium chloride. A pie crust is a “starch, lipid, and protein molecule configuration.” Eggplant is bitter because of its high concentration of phenolic compounds. All of this is to say: the work of women — if it must be seen as women’s work — is important, complex and serious. It’s a welcome message to the women of her era, and Zott quickly becomes a beloved national figure.

It’s a recipe for a bestseller, one might say, especially because the book itself is not serious in tone. In fact it’s often pretty funny. Told in a jaunty, episodic fashion, Garmus gives us the awkward bumbling of Zott’s romantic life and the cartoonish buffoonery of the men in Zott’s profession.

And then there’s Garmus’ own uplifting story: At 64 years old, this is her debut novel. “Lessons in Chemistry” arrives after decades of work and study — including a long-ago class at the University of Washington extension school in which Garmus was an intelligent and dedicated student of mine. Garmus’ story, like Zott’s, is a gratifying tale of perseverance, good humor, and, as is often the case, a 20-year journey to overnight success. And as with Zott, we can’t help but feel happy for Garmus.

But I also can’t help wishing that a novel this popular, and therefore influential — the television rights have already been acquired by AppleTV+, with Brie Larson playing Elizabeth Zott — was a little bit better. Because “Lessons in Chemistry” is, from a purely technical standpoint, a pretty clumsy and unsophisticated book. Witty, and very good-natured, but windy and ill-proportioned. Unlikely coincidences and ridiculous accidents abound. Characters lack nuance. Good people begin as righteously good and are eventually seen as such by everyone. Bad people are very, very bad, and are eventually punished for their badness.

review book lessons in chemistry

Attentive readers will catch echoes of Roald Dahl’s books for children: idiotic adults yelling in ALL CAPS, cruel villains felled by convenient heart attacks, a brilliant 4-year-old who reads Dickens. And there is, what seems to me, an altogether too-rosy view of how humanity really works.

The fans of Zott’s cooking show are educable, open-minded, welcome a challenge and are happy to do hard work because it is interesting. They are, in a word, imaginary. One wishes they weren’t. And so the book is, ultimately, a fantasy. Not just a revenge fantasy, but a golden vision of what it would be like if people were actually a little smarter, a little more decent, a little more determined to make the world a better place.

No wonder it’s such a hit.

Latest stories

review book lessons in chemistry

Seasonal eating: Burdock kinpira  

review book lessons in chemistry

Maya Dam: 17-year-old artist and market vendor

review book lessons in chemistry

Review: ‘The Lost Journals of Sacajawea’ by Debra Magpie Earling

Have a news tip.

Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092

e-edition

Sign up for our free email newsletters

  • Daily Update – M-F evenings, plus Saturday morning weekend outlook
  • Weekly Roundup – Sunday mornings, with top CDN stories and Sunday Read feature
  • Breaking News Alerts - Coverage of major news events as they happen

Subscriptions

  • Copyright © 2024 Cascadia Daily News
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

The Book Report Network

  • Bookreporter
  • ReadingGroupGuides
  • AuthorsOnTheWeb

ReadingGroupGuides.com logo

Sign up for our newsletters!

Find a Guide

For book groups, what's your book group reading this month, favorite monthly lists & picks, most requested guides of 2023, when no discussion guide available, starting a reading group, running a book group, choosing what to read, tips for book clubs, books about reading groups, coming soon, new in paperback, write to us, frequently asked questions.

  • Request a Guide

Advertise with Us

Add your guide, you are here:, lessons in chemistry, reading group guide.

share on facebook

  • Discussion Questions

review book lessons in chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

  • Publication Date: April 5, 2022
  • Genres: Fiction , Historical Fiction , Humor
  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday
  • ISBN-10: 038554734X
  • ISBN-13: 9780385547345
  • About the Book
  • Reading Guide (PDF)

review book lessons in chemistry

  • How to Add a Guide
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Newsletters

Copyright © 2024 The Book Report, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Authors & Events

Recommendations

Where to Start With Kazuo Ishiguro Books

  • New & Noteworthy
  • Bestsellers
  • Popular Series
  • The Must-Read Books of 2023
  • Popular Books in Spanish
  • Coming Soon
  • Literary Fiction
  • Mystery & Thriller
  • Science Fiction
  • Spanish Language Fiction
  • Biographies & Memoirs
  • Spanish Language Nonfiction
  • Dark Star Trilogy
  • Ramses the Damned
  • Penguin Classics
  • Award Winners
  • The Parenting Book Guide
  • Books to Read Before Bed
  • Books for Middle Graders
  • Trending Series
  • Magic Tree House
  • The Last Kids on Earth
  • Planet Omar
  • Beloved Characters
  • The World of Eric Carle
  • Llama Llama
  • Junie B. Jones
  • Peter Rabbit
  • Board Books
  • Picture Books
  • Guided Reading Levels
  • Middle Grade
  • Activity Books
  • Trending This Week
  • Top Must-Read Romances
  • Page-Turning Series To Start Now
  • Books to Cope With Anxiety
  • Short Reads
  • Anti-Racist Resources
  • Staff Picks
  • Memoir & Fiction
  • Features & Interviews
  • Emma Brodie Interview
  • James Ellroy Interview
  • Nicola Yoon Interview
  • Qian Julie Wang Interview
  • Deepak Chopra Essay
  • How Can I Get Published?
  • For Book Clubs
  • Reese's Book Club
  • Oprah’s Book Club
  • happy place " data-category="popular" data-location="header">Guide: Happy Place
  • the last white man " data-category="popular" data-location="header">Guide: The Last White Man
  • Authors & Events >
  • Our Authors
  • Michelle Obama
  • Zadie Smith
  • Emily Henry
  • Amor Towles
  • Colson Whitehead
  • In Their Own Words
  • Qian Julie Wang
  • Patrick Radden Keefe
  • Phoebe Robinson
  • Emma Brodie
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Laura Hankin
  • Recommendations >
  • 21 Books To Help You Learn Something New
  • The Books That Inspired "Saltburn"
  • Insightful Therapy Books To Read This Year
  • Historical Fiction With Female Protagonists
  • Best Thrillers of All Time
  • Manga and Graphic Novels
  • happy place " data-category="recommendations" data-location="header">Start Reading Happy Place
  • How to Make Reading a Habit with James Clear
  • Why Reading Is Good for Your Health
  • Vallery Lomas’ Blueberry Buckle Recipe
  • New Releases
  • Memoirs Read by the Author
  • Our Most Soothing Narrators
  • Press Play for Inspiration
  • Audiobooks You Just Can't Pause
  • Listen With the Whole Family

Penguin Random House

Look Inside | Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Lessons in Chemistry

By bonnie garmus, by bonnie garmus read by miranda raison , bonnie garmus and pandora sykes, category: literary fiction, category: literary fiction | audiobooks.

Apr 12, 2022 | ISBN 9780593556672 | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 --> | ISBN 9780593556672 --> Buy

Apr 05, 2022 | ISBN 9780385547345 | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 --> | ISBN 9780385547345 --> Buy

Apr 05, 2022 | ISBN 9780385547376 | ISBN 9780385547376 --> Buy

Apr 05, 2022 | 716 Minutes | ISBN 9780593507537 --> Buy

Aug 08, 2023 | 720 Minutes | ISBN 9780593862407 --> Buy

Buy from Other Retailers:

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Apr 12, 2022 | ISBN 9780593556672

Apr 05, 2022 | ISBN 9780385547345

Apr 05, 2022 | ISBN 9780385547376

Apr 05, 2022 | ISBN 9780593507537

716 Minutes

Aug 08, 2023 | ISBN 9780593862407

720 Minutes

Buy the CD:

  • Barnes & Noble
  • Books A Million
  • Powell’s

About Lessons in Chemistry

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: “a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention” ( The Washington Post ) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show. • STREAM ON APPLE TV+ This novel is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel” ( The New York Times Book Review ) and “witty, sometimes hilarious…the Catch-22 of early feminism” (Stephen King, via Twitter). A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.  But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six . Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.   Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

Listen to a sample from Lessons in Chemistry

About bonnie garmus.

BONNIE GARMUS is a copywriter and creative director who has worked widely in the fields of technology, medicine and education. She’s an open-water swimmer, a rower and mother to two pretty amazing daughters. Born in California and most recently from Seattle, she… More about Bonnie Garmus

Product Details

You may also like.

Book cover

Malibu Rising

Book cover

The Paper Palace (Reese’s Book Club)

Book cover

The Vanishing Half

Book cover

The Midnight Library

Book cover

People We Meet on Vacation

Book cover

The Giver of Stars

Book cover

The Lincoln Highway

Book cover

GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Elle, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, GoodReads, Bookpage, Kirkus ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Bustle, Real Simple, Parade, CNN, Today, E! News, Library Journal “In Garmus’s debut novel, a frustrated chemist finds herself at the helm of a cooking show that sparks a revolution. Welcome to the 1960s, where a woman’s arsenal of tools was often limited to the kitchen—and where Elizabeth Zott is hellbent on overturning the status quo one meal at a time.” — The New York Times “Strikingly relevant…Darkly funny and poignant… Lessons in Chemistry ’s excellent experiment [is] quirky and heartwarming.” — The Atlantic “The most delightful novel I read this year—fresh and surprising—was Lessons in Chemistry : a fish-out-of-water story about a feminist hero who never stops pushing for what’s right. (I laughed out loud!)” — Philip Galanes , The New York Times “Elizabeth Zott is going to be an important character to a lot of people . . . Absolute chemistry.” — Scott Simon, NPR “An irresistible buoyancy, along with a deliberately sharp bite. Garmus’s novel focuses on a female scientist whose ambitions are impeded—and then rerouted—by a world not yet ready for her.” — Frank Bruni , The New York Times “[Garmus] delivers an assured voice, an indelible heroine and relatable love stories…At the center of the novel is Elizabeth Zott, a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention…Elizabeth is a feminist and modern thinker […] in a world nowhere ready for her mind, character or ambition…[Garmus] charm[s]. She’s created an indelible assemblage of stubborn, idiosyncratic characters. She’s given us a comic novel at precisely the moment we crave one.” — Washington Post “Feminism is the catalyst that makes [ Lessons in Chemistry ] fizz like hydrochloric acid on limestone. Elizabeth Zott does not have ‘moxie’; she has courage. She is not a ‘girl boss’ or a ‘lady chemist’; she’s a groundbreaker and an expert in abiogenesis…To file Elizabeth Zott among the pink razors of the book world is to miss the sharpness of Garmus’s message. Lessons in Chemistry will make you wonder about all the real-life women born ahead of their time—women who were sidelined, ignored and worse because they weren’t as resourceful, determined and lucky as Elizabeth Zott. She’s a reminder of how far we’ve come, but also how far we still have to go.” — New York Times Book Review “Between the outrageous sexism and the bitter misfortune that thwart our heroine at every turn, this may not sound like a comic novel, but it is. Full of charm, energy and hope—and featuring a really great dog—it’s one to savor.”  — People Magazine “Darkly funny and poignant, Lessons in Chemistry paints an extraordinary portrait of an unusual life in 1960s California…Irresistible, a gorgeous tribute to resilience and the many types of love that sustain us.” — Oprah Daily “A kicky debut, this book tackles feminism, resilience, and rationalism in a fun and refreshing way.” — BuzzFeed “It’s the world versus Elizabeth Zott, an extraordinary woman determined to live on her own terms, and I had no trouble choosing a side. Lessons in Chemistry is a page-turning and highly satisfying tale: zippy, zesty, and Zotty.” — Maggie Shipstead , author of Great Circle “ Lessons in Chemistry is a breath of fresh air—a witty, propulsive, and refreshingly hopeful novel populated with singular characters. This book is an utter delight—wry, warm, and compulsively readable.” — Claire Lombardo , author of The Most Fun We Ever Had “On par with Beth Harmon of The Queen’s Gambit , Elizabeth Zott swept me away with her intellect, honesty, and unapologetic selfhood. Lessons in Chemistry is a story for all the smart girls who refuse to dumb themselves down despite a culture that demands otherwise. Though a creation of the 50s & 60s, Zott is a feminist icon for our time.” — Rachel Yoder , author of Nightbitch “A fun, feminist charmer, Bonnie Garmus’s novel Lessons in Chemistry follows singular single mother Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist in a man’s world—1960s America—as she becomes an unlikely cooking-show host and the role model her daughter deserves.” — Martha Stewart Living “[A] delightful debut…Elizabeth Zott, Garmus’ unflappable heroine, is no cheerily lilting [Julia] Child…[Garmus] skillfully moves her narrative forward and backward, filling in the empty spaces in Elizabeth’s story. It’s a novel full of dark moments…and yet Lessons in Chemistry feels richly funny…Elizabeth Zott is a unique heroine, and you find yourself wishing she wasn’t fictional: A lot of us—perhaps even Julia Child—might have enjoyed watching ‘Supper at Six.’” — The Seattle Times “ Lessons in Chemistry catalyzes science, cooking, and humor…Elizabeth [Zott]—determined, practical, uncompromising—shines brightest.” — Christian Science Monitor “[Garmus] presents a rollicking feminist tale full of humor and hope even as she doesn’t shy away from life’s ugliness. Clever and sharp, Lessons in Chemistry has a winning formula.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune “Find this runaway hit where history meets humor. The book follows a chemist in the 1960s who doesn’t get the respect she deserves. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she becomes the host of a famous cooking show. With her platform, she encourages viewers to push the boundaries the same way she did at work.” — Today.com “A bold, smart, and often hilarious look at the value of so-called women’s work.” — Real Simple “Garmus tells a familiar story in a completely original voice in her delightful debut novel…Zott is an unforgettable protagonist, logical and literal and utterly herself…The novel deftly mixes comedy and tragedy, with only one very clear villain: the patriarchal culture of mid-20th century America, the days of which are numbered because of women like Zott…For those who admire a confident, bone-dry, and hilarious authorial voice, this novel achieves the difficult task of being both sharply satirical and heartwarming at the same time.” — Historical Novels Review “If you can imagine Julia Child channeling a little bit of Lucille Ball, and all of the science edginess of Madame Curie, then you’ll have a really good idea of the humor and the wit and the warmth that just shine through this entire novel.” — Minnesota Public Radio News “I loved it and am devastated to have finished it.” — Nigella Lawson , author of Cook, Eat, Repeat “Garmus’ writing is extraordinary, and her insightful commentaries on life, religion, bigotry, misogyny and stupidity result in passages that are absolutely worth sharing…Be prepared to laugh, grieve, and root for Elizabeth.” — BookReporter “[An] energetic debut…A more adorable plea for rationalism and gender equality would be hard to find.”  — Kirkus (starred review) “Indefatigable and formidable, Elizabeth pushes the bounds of how women and their work are perceived in this thoroughly engaging debut novel.” — Booklist “Like a woman-centric “Mad Men”…A witty and sharp dramedy about resilience and found families…Readers won’t be able to get enough of Elizabeth and her makeshift family. Lessons in Chemistry is a story to return to again and again.”  — BookPage “While the novel focuses on serious themes of misogyny, feminism, family, and self-worth, it never gets didactic. The characters are rich and original, the story sarcastic and humorous, and the novel with all its twists and turns, difficult to put down. Zott is aloof and amazing, rational and revolutionary. Like Garmus, you may even find yourself channeling Elizabeth, asking ‘Now what would Elizabeth Zott do?’” —LA Daily News “A smart, funny, big-hearted debut combining chemical elements into what seems a winning formula—one whose breakneck pace and gently ironic tone should appeal to readers of literary-commercial hits by American authors such as Katherine Heiny, Emma Straub and Curtis Sittenfeld.” — Sunday Times (UK) “Elizabeth Zott is the smart, fierce star of Garmus’s witty debut…Brilliant.” — Mail on Sunday (UK) “The enchanting story of Elizabeth Zott never belittles the offence of sexism, but neither – miraculously – does it ever take you more than a few sentences away from a smile, a chuckle, or a laugh out loud. Bonnie Garmus’ gift is to expose the sting and injustice of being a woman in a man’s world with a feather light touch that keeps our spirits buoyant and our hearts strong. I honestly don’t know how she does it. This is a remarkable book by a remarkable writer.” — Jo Browning Roe , author of A Terrible Kindness “A fabulous novel. Compelling, satisfying, a real page-turner.” — Nina Stibbe , author of Reasons to Be Cheerful

Video & Media

Inside the Book: Bonnie Garmus (LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY)

Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

Raise kids who love to read

Today's Top Books

Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

An online magazine for today’s home cook

Just for joining you’ll get personalized recommendations on your dashboard daily and features only for members.

The Quick and the Read

The Quick and the Read

Book reviews, literary chat and more

review book lessons in chemistry

Book Review: ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ by Bonnie Garmus

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 so I was delighted to be granted a review copy – thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story is about a highly gifted Chemist, Elizabeth Zott, who is carrying out important research at the Hastings Research Institute – even though her efforts are often belittled and her work stolen by the men around her. After all, it’s the early 1960s and women can’t expect sexual equality – except Elizabeth Zott absolutely does. Her uncompromising stance gets her into trouble but also attracts the attention of older, Nobel-prize-nominated Calvin Evans. An unconventional relationship ensues – one that leaves Elizabeth with a dog, a daughter, and a hit TV cooking show. Things don’t work out as planned at all, but Elizabeth has the strength to work with whatever is thrown at her.

This book has received a lot of hype for its humour, feminist messages and strong female lead – and I can absolutely see that the plaudits are well deserved.

Elizabeth Zott is a fabulously strong and resilient central figure. She cannot understand why women are treated as second class citizens in 1960s America and seeks to correct the balance. She isn’t preaching feminism – she is living it. With each setback thrown at her, she picks herself up and finds a way to thrive – for example, building her own chemistry lab when she is at home with the baby. Even when horrendous things happen to her – and she isn’t immune from sexual predators, loss and prejudice – she faces it with fortitude and resilience. This makes her a formidable opponent for anyone trying to place limitations on her – and I loved the various ways that she dealt with them!

Although the book does have some tragic elements and is genuinely shocking in terms of the sexual politics, it is also packed with humour. Elizabeth Zott is, on the one hand, hugely intelligent and astute, but the humour lies in her contrastingly slightly naive and uncompromising views – she cannot understand why she has to conform to societal expectations and often leaves those who try to stop her floundering in her wake. There’s also delightful humour in the shape of Six-Thirty, the dog, and Mad, Zott’s equally clear-sighted daughter.

I personally loved the fact that Elizabeth is absolutely herself, whatever the situation. If this means presenting a cookery show in chemical terms (something the audience love as it means they aren’t being patronised) then so be it! Similarly, she is happy to row on a men’s team, make coffee in scientific equipment and teach Six-Thirty an extensive vocabulary. All absolutely normal to her – so why compromise?

As mentioned, Elizabeth’s life isn’t easy and the real warmth in this book comes from the characters who become her support network. There is a fabulous neighbour, Harriet, and poor long-suffering Walter, the producer on the cookery show who has to deal with some of Elizabeth’s more controversial moments on TV. In the face of Zott’s sometimes superhuman resolve, it’s lovely to see some more human and flawed characters.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes inspirational stories about women who defy the odds to achieve something amazing. The 1960s gender politics is shocking for a modern reader – in some ways showing how far we’ve come, although always with an undercurrent of ‘some things (sadly) don’t change’. I believe too that this is shortly to become a TV series, so now is definitely the time to read this book ahead of seeing it on screen.

If you’d like a copy of this fabulous book, please use my affiliate link below. Thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.

Header photo by Alex Kondratiev on Unsplash

Published by

' src=

TheQuickandtheRead

Bookworm, Mum and English teacher. Resident of Cheshire in the rainy north of England but an Essex girl at heart and by birth. View all posts by TheQuickandtheRead

  • International edition
  • Australia edition
  • Europe edition

Brie Larson in a 1950s set TV kitchen in Lessons in Chemistry.

Lessons in Chemistry review – luckily the talking dog segments are kept to a minimum

This enjoyable adaptation of the bestselling book sees Brie Larson as a chemistry genius battling 1950s sexism. It’s highly watchable, not least due to pruning the novel’s canine narrator

I magine Mad Men with only a serviceable script and set in academia instead of Madison Avenue and you will have a fair idea of Lessons in Chemistry, Apple TV+’s adaptation of the Bonnie Garmus bestseller of the same name.

The eight-part drama stars Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott, a chemistry genius whose fulfilment of her potential has been thwarted at every turn by the entrenched sexism of her era, the late 1950s. After being effectively forced to leave college before completing her PhD, we meet her working as a lab assistant – and coffee-maker – for a team of scientists who are intellectually inferior but blessed with the Y chromosome.

There is but one man who can (almost) match her in brainpower – the institution’s star and moneymaker Dr Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman). Pullman has the same aura of everyman decency as his father, Bill – and that makes him perfect casting as Zott’s sole supporter and, eventually, beloved. Their tentative, tender courtship is a delight to watch, despite more than a few clunking lines (“To assume that [you were a secretary] was wrong and buffoonish”), and a tendency to deploy jarringly modern references (to establishing boundaries, for example, at work) to make sure we understand that this is a healthy relationship and Elizabeth is in no way compromising her innate feminism by yielding to him. Lessons in Chemistry treads as carefully as Zott does her experiments.

This, plus the removal of much of the book’s humour, gives the TV version a worthier feel than the book, without adding much to what was, in essence, a wish-fulfilment fantasy-cum-romcom. The only light relief comes from Zott’s inability to pick up social cues or abide by social conventions. And that is a joke that can get real wearisome, real fast. It’s also a hard sell for an actor and Larson does well to bear the burden as lightly as she does.

The series follows the book’s plot fairly closely, as Zott – who has always applied her scientific knowledge to her cookery in private – becomes a popular TV chef after a chance meeting with a TV executive while she is casting about for ways to support herself and her daughter, as the patriarchy continually refuse to acknowledge her real strengths. She is hired for her all-American air and apparent embodiment of all things domestic and feminine, then proceeds to subvert producers’ expectations while raising those of her female viewers. “Children, set the table,” she says at the end of every show, after demonstrating what changes can be made to unpromising ingredients with the right application of the right agents and forces. “Your mother needs a moment to herself.”

The two main differences between the book and the adaptation are that the talking dog device has largely been dropped and the part of the nosy neighbour Harriet Sloane has been beefed up into something meaningful. The canine companion is – bar one episode – now no longer given a voice or anywhere near as much narrative space or weight. For those of us who always found it a slightly emetic conceit, this is nothing but good news. The advent of Harriet redux is even better news. Mesmerisingly played by Aja Naomi King, who has charisma to burn, she is now – as well as the wife and mother who is able to dispel maternal myths for Elizabeth, when she is in danger of drowning in the demands of new motherhood – a community activist and one-time law student who has been as stymied in her goal as Elizabeth, this time by the prejudice against her race as well as sex.

Lessons in Chemistry is a wholly enjoyable watch, just as the book was a wholly enjoyable read (apart from the dog). But, like the book, it still carries with it the sense of an opportunity wasted. We have seen this kind of condemnation of the 50s, of its sexism and racism many times before, from the nuanced brilliance of Mad Men itself to the simplistic likes of Masters of Sex and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel . We may not have learned their lessons but we have heard them multiple times. An extra special ingredient these days is needed to mark any new series on the subject out from the herd.

Lessons in Chemistry is streaming on Apple TV+

  • Television & radio
  • Brie Larson

Most viewed

  • Member Login
  • Library Patron Login

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Search: Title Author Article Search String:

BookBrowse Reviews Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Summary  |  Excerpt  |  Reading Guide  |  Reviews  |  Beyond the book  |  Read-Alikes  |  Genres & Themes  |  Author Bio

Lessons in Chemistry

by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Critics' Opinion:

Readers' Opinion:

  • Literary Fiction
  • 1940s & '50s
  • 1960s & '70s
  • Parenting & Families
  • Dealing with Loss
  • Strong Women
  • Top 20 Best Books of 2022

Rate this book

review book lessons in chemistry

About this Book

  • Reading Guide

Book Awards

  • Media Reviews
  • Reader Reviews

A charming, funny debut novel about a chemist turned cooking show host

Bonnie Garmus's debut, Lessons in Chemistry, introduces readers to an exceptional woman struggling to succeed in a male-dominated field. When we first meet 30-year-old Elizabeth Zott, the year is 1961, and we quickly learn she's the single mother of a precocious child and the unlikely star of a wildly popular weekday cooking show, Supper at Six. We also discover that behind her TV persona, she's a talented research chemist who has taken what she feels is a demeaning position solely as a means of supporting her daughter. The narrative then rewinds to 1952 to explain how Elizabeth got to this point in her life. Garmus sets her novel in the days before the Equal Rights Amendment and the #MeToo movement, when most men — and many women as well — believed that any woman who dared to enter a traditional men's profession was either "a lightweight or a gold digger," in the author's words. Worse, attractive single women in the workplace were often seen by powerful men as mere prey. Elizabeth experiences the worst of the worst: she's sexually assaulted; she's given a lab coat with her initials — "EZ" — rather than her last name; her work is openly ridiculed by her peers who then plagiarize it; and when her employer uses those breakthroughs to lure investors, they're told the discoveries were made by a "Mr. Zott." And that's just a small sample of the inequities this resilient woman must overcome. Given the difficult subject matter at its core, one might think the novel is a dark, weighty exploration of the sexual discrimination rampant during the 1950s and early 1960s. Amazingly, it's really not; although the book's substance depends largely on this theme, its overall tone is positive and affirming. Garmus's narrative reads a bit like a fable, often employing a simple, straightforward writing style and using repetition:

[Harriet Sloane] was unattractive and she knew it. She also knew that [Elizabeth's partner] was unattractive, and the sloppy dog Elizabeth brought home one day was unattractive, and there was a good chance Elizabeth's future baby would be unattractive too. But none of them were — or would ever be — ugly. Only Mr. Sloane was ugly, and that was because he was unattractive on the inside.

There's something comforting about a cadence like this — a subtle reassurance that all will be right in the end. The writing is also frequently quite funny. At one point, for example, Elizabeth's producers insist she feature one of their sponsor's canned soups on her program. It looks like she's agreed when she holds up the soup can and, on live TV, tells her audience it's a real time-saver:

"That's because it's full of chemicals," she said, tossing it with a clunk into a nearby garbage can. "Feed enough of it to your loved ones and they'll eventually die off, saving you tons of time since you won't have to feed them anymore."

What truly makes the book work, though, is the main character. In addition to being smart, Elizabeth is endlessly logical, practical and clear-headed; she simply refuses to be undervalued. "The reduction of women to something less than men…is not biological: it's cultural," she tells her audience as she proceeds to ignore the boundaries some would impose on her because of her sex. We fall in love with her not so much for the fact that she pushes back against these limits but because she points out their irrationality and proceeds accordingly. The book does have a few flaws, partially stemming from its overall storybook feel. The author's simplified writing style is especially apparent in the novel's first chapters, which almost read as if they were pitched to a young adult audience. The technique is less noticeable as the narrative proceeds, but some readers may be turned off before the story really gets rolling. In addition, the characters who surround Elizabeth lack nuance; with few exceptions, the "good" characters are all very intelligent and supportive while the bad characters are stupid and evil. Finally, much of the plot — including its fairytale ending — relies heavily on coincidence. Some might conside Lessons in Chemistry "chick lit," but I think that label does the book a disservice. Although its audience will likely be predominantly female, its themes are weighty and relevant, and any romance in it is much like Elizabeth herself: logical, analytical and not at all "frothy." The novel's exploration of gender roles will make it a good choice for book group discussions, and its unforgettable heroine and feel-good ending will almost certainly garner the author a host of avid fans.

review book lessons in chemistry

  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:    A Short History of the Cooking Show

Read-alikes.

  • Genres & Themes

If you liked Lessons in Chemistry, try these:

The Last Animal jacket

The Last Animal

by Ramona Ausubel

Published 2024

About this book

More by this author

A playful, witty, and resonant novel in which a single mother and her two teen daughters engage in a wild scientific experiment and discover themselves in the process, from the award-winning writer of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty

The Exceptions jacket

The Exceptions

by Kate Zernike

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who broke the story, the inspiring account of the sixteen female scientists who forced MIT to publicly admit it had been discriminating against its female faculty for years—sparking a nationwide reckoning with the pervasive sexism in science.

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more

Book Jacket: The Ascent

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket

Members Recommend

Book Jacket

Strong Passions by Barbara Weisberg

Shocking revelations of a wife's adultery in 19th New York explode in an incendiary trial exposing the upper-crust and its secrets.

Book Jacket

Leaving by Roxana Robinson

An engrossing exploration of the vows we make to one another and what we owe to others and ourselves.

Win This Book

Win The Cleaner

The Cleaner by Brandi Wells

Rarely has cubicle culture been depicted in such griminess or with such glee." — PW (starred review)

Solve this clue:

I Wouldn't T H W A T-F P

and be entered to win..

Your guide to exceptional           books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email.

INSIDER

8 major changes 'Lessons in Chemistry' has made from the bestselling book (so far)

Posted: October 13, 2023 | Last updated: October 13, 2023

<ul class="summary-list"> <li>Apple TV+'s "Lessons in Chemistry" is based on Bonnie Garmus' 2022 novel of the same name.</li> <li>We rounded up the biggest differences between the adaptation and the bestselling book.</li> <li>Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the book and episodes that have aired so far.</li> </ul><p>The new <a href="https://www.insider.com/best-streaming-service">Apple TV+</a> show "Lessons in Chemistry" remains in many ways faithful to Bonnie Garmus' <a href="https://www.insider.com/most-recommended-books-tiktok-2021-3">bestselling book</a> of the same name.</p><p>Both the series and the book tell the story of the uncompromising and unconventional Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), a scientist on the verge of a major breakthrough in DNA research whose life trajectory changes after she meets and falls in love with one of her research institute's top scientists, Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman).</p><p>Elizabeth's relationship with and support from Calvin brings her closer than ever to making a splash in the science community, but after an unforeseen change in circumstances, she finds herself ousted from her position at the lab and reluctantly accepts a job as a host on a cooking program.</p><p>Making the most of the opportunity, Elizabeth decides to teach her audience of housewives and mothers the chemistry of cooking, empowering them to go beyond society's expectations of them, sparking a revolution.</p><p>Not every detail from the show has been included in the book and some aspects, characters, and storylines from the show have been altered, condensed, or replaced with others.</p><p>Here are the biggest differences between the book and the episodes of the show that have aired so far.</p><div class="read-original">Read the original article on <a href="https://www.insider.com/lessons-in-chemistry-apple-tv-key-changes-between-book-show-2023-10">Insider</a></div>

  • Apple TV+'s "Lessons in Chemistry" is based on Bonnie Garmus' 2022 novel of the same name.
  • We rounded up the biggest differences between the adaptation and the bestselling book.
  • Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the book and episodes that have aired so far.

The new Apple TV+ show "Lessons in Chemistry" remains in many ways faithful to Bonnie Garmus' bestselling book of the same name.

Both the series and the book tell the story of the uncompromising and unconventional Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), a scientist on the verge of a major breakthrough in DNA research whose life trajectory changes after she meets and falls in love with one of her research institute's top scientists, Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman).

Elizabeth's relationship with and support from Calvin brings her closer than ever to making a splash in the science community, but after an unforeseen change in circumstances, she finds herself ousted from her position at the lab and reluctantly accepts a job as a host on a cooking program.

Making the most of the opportunity, Elizabeth decides to teach her audience of housewives and mothers the chemistry of cooking, empowering them to go beyond society's expectations of them, sparking a revolution.

Not every detail from the show has been included in the book and some aspects, characters, and storylines from the show have been altered, condensed, or replaced with others.

Here are the biggest differences between the book and the episodes of the show that have aired so far.

<p>In the book, Elizabeth brazenly enters Calvin's lab at Hastings Research Institute one day in search of some equipment for her own undersupplied lab. </p><p>During their terse exchange, Calvin insults Elizabeth by assuming that she is a secretary, leading to her marching out with a box of beakers. Several days later, Calvin finds her and apologizes but Elizabeth shows no interest in making amends.</p><p>This is slightly altered for the show which shows Elizabeth working on her abiogenesis research after work hours. She sneaks into Calvin's locked lab and swipes a bottle of ribose from his shelves. </p><p>The next day she finds herself confronted by Calvin, who mistakenly assumes she's a secretary and accuses her of stealing the bottle to sell on the black market. He even calls her a "fibber" when Elizabeth tells her she's a chemist, just like him. It's only when Calvin puts in a formal complaint about Elizabeth to Miss Frask (Stephanie Koenig), that he realizes she isn't lying.</p>

The way Elizabeth Zott and Calvin Evans first meet has been slightly altered.

In the book, Elizabeth brazenly enters Calvin's lab at Hastings Research Institute one day in search of some equipment for her own undersupplied lab. 

During their terse exchange, Calvin insults Elizabeth by assuming that she is a secretary, leading to her marching out with a box of beakers. Several days later, Calvin finds her and apologizes but Elizabeth shows no interest in making amends.

This is slightly altered for the show which shows Elizabeth working on her abiogenesis research after work hours. She sneaks into Calvin's locked lab and swipes a bottle of ribose from his shelves. 

The next day she finds herself confronted by Calvin, who mistakenly assumes she's a secretary and accuses her of stealing the bottle to sell on the black market. He even calls her a "fibber" when Elizabeth tells her she's a chemist, just like him. It's only when Calvin puts in a formal complaint about Elizabeth to Miss Frask (Stephanie Koenig), that he realizes she isn't lying.

<p>In the book, there is no mention of the Little Miss Hastings pageant, which Elizabeth is begrudgingly forced to participate in as "Miss Aminos" after she receives a formal warning about her behavior.</p><p>It's while grabbing her coat and making an early exit that Elizabeth encounters Calvin again, who at that very moment vomits on her.</p><p>In the book, this second meeting between Calvin and Elizabeth takes place at a theater following an opera performance the two both happen to be at, and it's Calvin's reaction to a date's perfume, rather than Mrs Donatti's that makes him nauseous.</p><p>Rather than be a serendipitous encounter as it is in the book, in the show Calvin reveals that he had actually attended the pageant to see Elizabeth and gift her the bottle of ribose as an apology for his rude remarks.</p>

The Little Miss Hastings pageant is entirely made up for the adaptation.

In the book, there is no mention of the Little Miss Hastings pageant, which Elizabeth is begrudgingly forced to participate in as "Miss Aminos" after she receives a formal warning about her behavior.

It's while grabbing her coat and making an early exit that Elizabeth encounters Calvin again, who at that very moment vomits on her.

In the book, this second meeting between Calvin and Elizabeth takes place at a theater following an opera performance the two both happen to be at, and it's Calvin's reaction to a date's perfume, rather than Mrs Donatti's that makes him nauseous.

Rather than be a serendipitous encounter as it is in the book, in the show Calvin reveals that he had actually attended the pageant to see Elizabeth and gift her the bottle of ribose as an apology for his rude remarks.

<p>The first episode introduces viewers to Harriet Sloane (Aja Naomi King), who doesn't appear until much later on in the book. Calvin's neighbor doesn't come into the story until after Elizabeth has moved in with Calvin. In fact, readers do not see Calvin interact with her at all.</p><p>But in the show, Harriet is shown to be a part of Calvin's daily life — in fact, it's shown that he even babysits her children sometimes. </p><p>Her role in the series has been expanded to introduce a new storyline about the neighborhood where she and Calvin live being under threat of being demolished to make way for a new freeway.</p>

Harriet Sloane, Calvin's neighbor, plays a much larger role in the show.

The first episode introduces viewers to Harriet Sloane (Aja Naomi King), who doesn't appear until much later on in the book. Calvin's neighbor doesn't come into the story until after Elizabeth has moved in with Calvin. In fact, readers do not see Calvin interact with her at all.

But in the show, Harriet is shown to be a part of Calvin's daily life — in fact, it's shown that he even babysits her children sometimes. 

Her role in the series has been expanded to introduce a new storyline about the neighborhood where she and Calvin live being under threat of being demolished to make way for a new freeway.

<p>The second episode of "Lessons in Chemistry" opens with a flashback to Elizabeth's days studying at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and audiences learn the reason why she never managed to get her PhD. </p><p>Shortly after submitting her proposal, she finds herself on the receiving end of unwanted sexual advances from her professor and personal mentor, Dr. Bates, a character who has been invented for the show. When she tells him she doesn't see him that way, he forces himself on her.</p><p>However, in the book, it is the older, lecherous Dr. Meyers who rapes Elizabeth in a brutal attack after finding her running last-minute tests on his latest research project late at night in the university lab.</p><p>In both the book and the adaptation, Elizabeth is able to stop her assailant by stabbing them in the gut with a pencil but pays the consequence of losing her place on her course when she refuses to offer a statement of regret.</p>

Elizabeth is sexually assaulted by someone she considers a friend and a mentor, rather than an old and lecherous professor.

The second episode of "Lessons in Chemistry" opens with a flashback to Elizabeth's days studying at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and audiences learn the reason why she never managed to get her PhD. 

Shortly after submitting her proposal, she finds herself on the receiving end of unwanted sexual advances from her professor and personal mentor, Dr. Bates, a character who has been invented for the show. When she tells him she doesn't see him that way, he forces himself on her.

However, in the book, it is the older, lecherous Dr. Meyers who rapes Elizabeth in a brutal attack after finding her running last-minute tests on his latest research project late at night in the university lab.

In both the book and the adaptation, Elizabeth is able to stop her assailant by stabbing them in the gut with a pencil but pays the consequence of losing her place on her course when she refuses to offer a statement of regret.

<p>Shortly after she is transferred to Calvin's lab so she can focus on her abiogenesis research, Elizabeth requests to be moved back after an exchange with Calvin brings up memories of her attack.</p><p>When she isn't allowed to, she decides to set up boundaries in their shared lab and begins acting coldly towards him.</p><p>None of this occurs in the book, but it helps underscore Elizabeth's apprehensive about growing close to Calvin, in case he turns out to be like other men she has encountered, or it jeopardizes her position at Hastings.</p>

This change to the story plays a role in Elizabeth's decision to distance herself from Calvin when she realizes that there is more than friendship between them.

Shortly after she is transferred to Calvin's lab so she can focus on her abiogenesis research, Elizabeth requests to be moved back after an exchange with Calvin brings up memories of her attack.

When she isn't allowed to, she decides to set up boundaries in their shared lab and begins acting coldly towards him.

None of this occurs in the book, but it helps underscore Elizabeth's apprehensive about growing close to Calvin, in case he turns out to be like other men she has encountered, or it jeopardizes her position at Hastings.

<p>In the second episode, Elizabeth finds a stray dog sniffing around the trash cans in her backyard, and taking pity on him, makes him a plate of fresh food. Later on, it's made clear that she's adopted him when she brings him to Calvin's house. </p><p>When asked what his name is, Elizabeth says it's Six-Thirty "after the time he wakes me up in the morning. It's like clockwork."</p><p>In the book, Six-Thirty shows up in the story after Elizabeth and Calvin have begun living together and decide to get a dog together.</p><p>He follows Elizabeth home from a nearby deli and gets his humorous name after Calvin asks Elizabeth who her friend is and, mishearing him, Elizabeth looks at her watch and reads him out the time.</p>

Six-Thirty appears earlier in the story in the show, and there's a different reason why he has his unique name.

In the second episode, Elizabeth finds a stray dog sniffing around the trash cans in her backyard, and taking pity on him, makes him a plate of fresh food. Later on, it's made clear that she's adopted him when she brings him to Calvin's house. 

When asked what his name is, Elizabeth says it's Six-Thirty "after the time he wakes me up in the morning. It's like clockwork."

In the book, Six-Thirty shows up in the story after Elizabeth and Calvin have begun living together and agree to get a dog.

He follows Elizabeth home from a nearby deli and gets his humorous name after Calvin asks Elizabeth who her friend is and, mishearing him, Elizabeth looks at her watch and reads him out the time.

<p>In the book, Six-Thirty is described as "tall, gray, thin, and covered in barbed-wire-like fur," which brings to mind a dog like a Lurcher.</p><p>However, in the adaptation the failed bomb detection dog is shown to be a <a href="https://people.com/labradoodle-who-plays-six-thirty-in-lessons-in-chemistry-incredibly-lovable-exclusive-8347564" rel="noopener">Goldendoodle</a> — a cross a Golden Retriever and a Poodle that <a href="https://www.purina.co.uk/find-a-pet/dog-breeds/goldendoodle#:~:text=The%20Goldendoodle%20is%20one%20of,in%20order%20to%20learn%20more." rel="noopener">didn't come about until the 1990s</a>.</p>

Six-Thirty is depicted as a Goldendoodle, a breed that wasn't actually around in the 1950s.

In the book, Six-Thirty is described as "tall, gray, thin, and covered in barbed-wire-like fur," which brings to mind a dog like a Lurcher.

However, in the adaptation the failed bomb detection dog is shown to be a  Goldendoodle  — a cross a Golden Retriever and a Poodle that  didn't come about until the 1990s .

<p>At the end of the second episode, Elizabeth lays out the reasons why she never wants to get married or become a mother: for her, it would mean giving up everything else.</p><p>Calvin thanks her for letting him know and reassures her that "as long as I have you and you're happy that is enough for me."</p><p>These events unfold very differently in the book; even though Elizabeth has made her feelings about marriage clear, Calvin still tries to propose to her with a ring over lunch one day at Hastings.</p><p>He also has a hard time understanding why she's so opposed to not only marrying him but changing her last name to his and reveals that he has already added the name "Elizabeth Evans" to the deed of their home.</p>

The show's version of Calvin accepts that Elizabeth doesn't want to get married without question.

At the end of the second episode, Elizabeth lays out the reasons why she never wants to get married or become a mother: for her, it would mean giving up everything else.

Calvin thanks her for letting him know and reassures her that "as long as I have you and you're happy that is enough for me."

These events unfold very differently in the book; even though Elizabeth has made her feelings about marriage clear, Calvin still tries to propose to her with a ring over lunch one day at Hastings.

He also has a hard time understanding why she's so opposed to not only marrying him but changing her last name to his and reveals that he has already added the name "Elizabeth Evans" to the deed of their home.

Most Popular

The way i used to be summary, the silent patient summary, it ends with us summary, ugly love summary, a court of thorns and roses summary, lessons in chemistry summary.

Lesley J. Vos

“Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus is a novel that combines humor, heartbreak, and science to tell the story of an extraordinary woman ahead of her time. Published in 2022, the story is set in the 1960s and centers around Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant and unconventional chemist in a male-dominated field.

Lessons In Chemistry Summary

Elizabeth Zott is not your typical 1960s woman. As a chemist, she faces constant sexism and discrimination in her career but refuses to conform to societal expectations. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she becomes a single mother and, subsequently, the star of a popular cooking show, “Supper at Six.” Elizabeth uses the platform to teach more than just recipes; she imparts lessons in chemistry and life, challenging her audience to think critically and empowering women to see themselves as capable of achieving more than society expects of them.

Plot Summary

Professional Struggles : Elizabeth works at the Hastings Research Institute, where she is often belittled and marginalized by her male colleagues. Despite her brilliance, she is not taken seriously because of her gender. Her only ally is Calvin Evans, a fellow chemist and Nobel laureate, with whom she shares a deep intellectual and romantic connection.

Personal Life : After a series of personal and professional setbacks, including Calvin’s untimely death, Elizabeth finds herself pregnant and alone. She faces further discrimination due to her status as an unwed mother but remains undeterred in her pursuit of independence and fulfillment.

Unexpected Career Turn : When Elizabeth is unfairly dismissed from her research position, she inadvertently becomes the host of a cooking show. Initially resistant, she transforms the role to suit her strengths, using it as a platform to teach science and promote equality. Her unconventional approach makes the show a hit, challenging societal norms and inspiring women nationwide.

Impact and Legacy : Elizabeth’s influence extends beyond her television audience. She is a role model for her daughter, Madeline, and for women who feel constrained by societal expectations. Through her strength, intelligence, and compassion, Elizabeth effects change in her community and paves the way for future generations of women in STEM.

Lessons In Chemistry Summary

“Lessons in Chemistry” is a celebration of resilience and the pursuit of knowledge. It highlights the challenges faced by women in male-dominated fields and the impact of breaking stereotypes. The novel underscores the importance of education, self-respect, and the fight for equality, all delivered with wit and warmth.

Notable Quotes

  • “Chemistry is like cooking—just don’t lick the spoon.”
  • “You don’t need everyone to like you, Elizabeth. Just the right ones.”

Similar Books

Readers who enjoy “Lessons in Chemistry” might also like:

  • “The Rosie Project” by Graeme Simsion – A novel about a socially awkward genetics professor who devises an evidence-based survey to find the perfect wife but learns about the unpredictability of love.
  • “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” by Maria Semple – A humorous and heartwarming story about a misanthropic architect who goes missing before a family trip to Antarctica, prompting her daughter to piece together her whereabouts.
  • “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman – A novel about a socially awkward and solitary woman whose life changes when she and a coworker assist an elderly man who has fallen on the sidewalk.
  • “The Signature of All Things” by Elizabeth Gilbert – A sweeping novel about a 19th-century botanist whose research takes her around the world, exploring themes of science, love, and evolution.

“Lessons in Chemistry” is a novel that mixes humor with serious themes, portraying a woman’s struggle for respect and equality in a world that often seeks to undermine her intelligence and ambition. It is a story of empowerment, change, and the enduring quest for knowledge.

Follow us on Reddit for more insights and updates.

Comments (0)

Welcome to A*Help comments!

We’re all about debate and discussion at A*Help.

We value the diverse opinions of users, so you may find points of view that you don’t agree with. And that’s cool. However, there are certain things we’re not OK with: attempts to manipulate our data in any way, for example, or the posting of discriminative, offensive, hateful, or disparaging material.

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

More from Book Summaries

Everyday Use Summary

19 hours ago

Everyday Use Summary

The Great Gatsby Chapter 2 Summary

The Great Gatsby Chapter 2 Summary

Who Moved My Cheese Summary

Who Moved My Cheese Summary

Remember Me

What is your profession ? Student Teacher Writer Other

Forgotten Password?

Username or Email

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, lessons in chemistry.

review book lessons in chemistry

Brie Larson is supremely likable, a trait that has served her well in varied productions from “ Captain Marvel ” to “ Room ” and now Apple TV+’s new series “Lessons in Chemistry,” which is based on the popular Bonnie Garmus novel of the same name. 

Larson plays Elizabeth Zott, a sometimes wooden but always sympathetic heroine. Bad things do happen to Ms. Zott, as she’s often called, but this is not a dark drama or an antihero tale. The tragedies that befall her are the show’s premise (and predictable even for those who haven’t read the book), but once they’re laid out, creator Lee Eisenberg crafts an aspirational fairytale, building a positively lovely universe and central heroine to spend eight episodes with.

Beautiful art direction is part of what makes this show so pleasant. Like “Mad Men” before it, the mid-century costumes and sets are a sight to behold. From men’s athleisure wear to patterned and high-waisted dresses, the outfits consistently delight in form and function. Little touches like Elizabeth’s subtly changing hairstyles over the years or the shots of her getting ready for bed with her hair pinned transport the audience to a different time. Likewise, the characters live and work in Los Angeles, but it’s different than Hollywood's palm-tree-lined version. Yes, the skies are blue in “Lessons in Chemistry,” but the neighborhoods are filled with charming bungalows and shade-bearing trees. This was suburban LA before it became the center for car culture and excess.

That said, in Elizabeth Zott’s fictional midcentury California, “sex discrimination” is real and pervasive but doesn’t keep exceptional women down. Zott’s setbacks take her on a decade-long detour from her true dream of chemistry research in the '50s to being an unexpected TV star in the '60s, but she never doubts or stops advocating for herself. She calls out sexist practices everywhere she encounters them, challenging the domineering white guys (played by the likes Derek Cecil of Rainn Wilson ) whose Y chromosomes have given them unearned power over her. She doesn’t win every battle, but we know she’ll win the war–finding a successful career, modeling the importance of feminine skills like cooking, and decrying antiquated practices like firing a woman outright for becoming pregnant. Those issues may still be with us– one in five mothers today report experiencing pregnancy discrimination at work, for example–but how Elizabeth encounters them makes the issue plain. 

Motherhood is a more complicated issue. Early on, our heroine declares she never wants to get married or have kids. And yet, this being TV (or a novel), she finds herself alone, saddled with an unexpected pregnancy. We don’t see her so much as think of terminating (abortion would have been illegal back in the 1950s, but not impossible for a chemist who devises her own pregnancy test using lab frogs). Instead, Elizabeth undergoes the difficulties of her era’s childbirth medical practices and the complications of single motherhood today and always. Here, she finds a common cause with her neighbors, who remember the difficulty of new motherhood, even when wanted and planned for. Eventually, Elizabeth finds joy and encouragement in her role as a mother.

That part is a bit frustrating. Children as learning devices for women is about as tired as rape is as a learning device for men . We need a new narrative that doesn’t make motherhood compulsory for women who don’t want it. Still, it's nice to see the real challenges of raising children, particularly newborns, taken seriously on screen. It's a monumentally difficult task and one that is not understood as such (see the erroneous belief that maternity leave is “vacation.” )

In that, motherhood mirrors other feminine-coded tasks of domesticity. It may be hard to dramatize the importance of cleaning or doing laundry, but “Lessons in Chemistry” does an excellent job verbalizing the importance of cooking—stating it often and clearly. Both an art and a science, domestic cooking is the type of work that can feel like drudgery when it’s not appreciated. 

But Elizabeth sees and articulates it differently, opening her new cooking show with these words: “In my experience, people do not appreciate the work and sacrifice that goes into being a mother, a wife, a woman. Well, I am not one of those people. At the end of our time here together, we will have done something worth doing. We will have created something that will not go unnoticed. We will have made supper, and it will matter.” With touches like that, “Lessons in Chemistry” clarifies the social construction of gender—too often, it’s the masculine endeavors that we deem valuable, not the thing or the person itself.

Likewise, Elizabeth’s kindness and rationality power the show, particularly as it nudges its characters to improve. Its moral compass is so strong, so clear as to be both reductive and satisfying simultaneously. “Lessons in Chemistry” is largely a morality play where Elizabeth represents the pinnacle of white feminism. She’s smart, determined, courageous, caring, and beautiful, but reluctantly so.

The show is more nuanced with race. When we meet Harriet Sloane ( Aja Naomi King ), Elizabeth’s eventual neighbor and confidant, we see she is also battling gender norms as she puts her career on hold for her husband. But her larger problem is how the powers-that-be view her mostly Black community of Sugar Hill. She leads the committee to stop Los Angeles building the 10 Freeway to Santa Monica and through her neighborhood. It’s a battle that anyone who’s driven to the beach in LA knows she will lose.

Still, a sit-in scene and Elizabeth’s and Harriet’s reluctant allyship to protect the Black community where they live rings truer than much of the above. It’s not that the gender discrimination of the ‘50s and ‘60s didn’t happen—it’s that the decades-old examples are easy to decry. Would a show with modern examples be as righteous and clear-cut? Probably not. But the show’s handling of police brutality is, sadly, timeless. 

It too often feels modern, if not fantastical, that Harriet can prod Elizabeth to recognize and leverage her privilege. Elizabeth grows in the exact right way we in 2023 want her to. She’s a hero, the best possible white woman, a fantasy to aspire to. She may not look like the heroes of comic book movies (but she’s obviously not far off given Larson’s leading work in that realm), but she does offer a blueprint for exceptionalism. Larson's Elizabeth exists in a world where the right thing to do is always clear if not always chosen.

The cast does a lot of heavy lifting here, too. Larson holds the show's center with ease, giving way to her supporting cast effortlessly. King has perhaps the most nuanced role, hitting every note, from righteous indignation to playful joy to nudging disappointment. She’s also not stuck as solely a supporting character but rather shines in her own light. The rest of the cast fills out nicely with Lewis Pullman in the dreamy, idealized lover role, Alice Halsey as the believably precious daughter, Kevin Sussman as the overwhelmed producer, and Patrick Walker as the wise friend. Even the dog is perfectly cast.

“Lessons in Chemistry” is a joy to watch, an escape with a clear-cut and righteous perspective. With Larson leading the way, the show challenges us to rise to our best possible selves, even as it presents a simplified view of the challenges women of all races encounter. 

The whole series was screened for review. "Lessons in Chemistry" premieres on Apple TV+ on October 13th.

Cristina Escobar

Cristina Escobar

Cristina Escobar is the co-founder of LatinaMedia.Co, a digital publication uplifting Latina and gender non-conforming Latinx perspectives in media.

Now playing

review book lessons in chemistry

Code 8 Part II

Marya e. gates.

review book lessons in chemistry

Brian Tallerico

review book lessons in chemistry

Kiss the Future

Collin souter.

review book lessons in chemistry

Dario Argento Panico

Simon abrams.

review book lessons in chemistry

God Save Texas

Matt zoller seitz, film credits.

Lessons in Chemistry movie poster

Lessons in Chemistry (2023)

360 minutes

Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott

Lewis Pullman as Calvin Evans

Aja Naomi King as Harriet Slone

Stephanie Koenig as Fran Frask

Thomas Mann as Boryweitz

Kevin Sussman as Walter

Beau Bridges as Wilson

  • Sarah Adina Smith

Writer (based on the book by)

  • Bonnie Garmus

Writer (developed by)

  • Lee Eisenberg
  • Elissa Karasik

Cinematographer

  • Zack Galler
  • Jason Oldak
  • Matthew Barbato
  • Geraud Brisson
  • Laura Zempel
  • Daniel Martens
  • Carlos Rafael Rivera

Latest blog posts

review book lessons in chemistry

Danny Boyle Explains What Made Cillian Murphy So Special from the Start

review book lessons in chemistry

Oscar Predictions 2024: What Will Win This Year

review book lessons in chemistry

Paul Dano is Ready for His Next Mission

review book lessons in chemistry

The Unloved, Part 123: Birth

IMAGES

  1. Chemistry: Concepts and Applications by McGraw-Hill (English) Hardcover

    review book lessons in chemistry

  2. Lessons in Chemistry : A Novel by Bonnie Garmus (2022, Hardcover) Brand

    review book lessons in chemistry

  3. Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    review book lessons in chemistry

  4. All About Chemistry by Robert Winston

    review book lessons in chemistry

  5. Master Books Chemistry Student Textbook

    review book lessons in chemistry

  6. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    review book lessons in chemistry

VIDEO

  1. Chemistry2 / Chapter6 / Lesson5

  2. chemistry 101

  3. Chemistry 3 Lesson 2

  4. Chemistry Lect# 16

  5. 11th Chemistry Chapter 5 book back answers || 11th Chemistry Question Answers

  6. chemistry 101

COMMENTS

  1. Book Review: "Lessons in Chemistry," by Bonnie Garmus

    To file Elizabeth Zott among the pink razors of the book world is to miss the sharpness of Garmus's message. "Lessons in Chemistry" will make you wonder about all the real-life women born ...

  2. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus review

    Tue 19 Apr 2022 02.00 EDT. E very now and again, a first novel appears in a flurry of hype and big-name TV deals, and before the end of the first chapter you do a little air-punch because for once ...

  3. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    P.S. 'Lessons in Chemistry' is coming to Apple TV in 2023! Be on the lookout! Content Warnings: S3xual Ass4ult is mentioned more than once, and once in somewhat graphic detail. If you want to read this book and skip that graphic scene - skip pages - you'll know when it's coming. You'll still get the overall feel of the book!

  4. Beneath Its Pink Cover, 'Lessons in Chemistry' Offers a Story About

    In its brief life — "Lessons in Chemistry" was released in April, in the United States and Britain, by Doubleday — the book has become an international success, with six months on best ...

  5. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus book review

    Garmus's novel 'Lessons in Chemistry' delivers an assured voice, an indelible heroine and relatable love stories. Review by Karen Heller. April 5, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT. (Doubleday; Serena ...

  6. Lessons in Chemistry Is a Shallow Portrait of Genius: Review

    October 13, 2023 7:00 AM EDT. E lizabeth Zott is not like other girls. In fact, maybe don't call her a girl. The heroine of Lessons in Chemistry is an adult woman and a brilliant chemist whose ...

  7. LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

    An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored. 40. Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022. ISBN: 978--06-325-1922. Page Count: 560. Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins. Review Posted Online: July 13, 2022.

  8. Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    Published: May 14, 2022. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is a dazzling story about one woman's fight against misogyny. I try to read many of the celebrity book club picks and after finishing True Biz by Sara Novic (Reese's April Book Club Pick), I decided to try Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (GMA April Book Club Pick).

  9. REVIEW: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    This is what they triumphed over to give me and you our chances. "Lessons in Chemistry" is more of a women's fiction book but it does have a strong romance in it. As the book opens, we see Elizabeth Zott carefully preparing her daughter's lunch and writing inspirational notes to put in Madeline, aka "Mad's," lunchbox.

  10. Lessons in Chemistry is the biggest debut novel of the past year. Here

    Bonnie Garmus' debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, has become one of those books you see everywhere: in the hands of subway passengers and waiting room idlers, on the nightstands of book group ...

  11. Reviews of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    Bonnie Garmus's debut, Lessons in Chemistry, introduces readers to an exceptional woman struggling to succeed in a male-dominated field. Garmus sets her novel in the days before the Equal Rights Amendment and the #MeToo movement, when most men — and many women as well — believed that any woman who dared to enter a traditional men's profession was either "a lightweight or a gold digger," in ...

  12. Book review of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    Read our starred review of the audiobook edition of 'Lessons in Chemistry.' When the life that Elizabeth has painstakingly forged goes heartbreakingly off-kilter, Lessons in Chemistry becomes a witty and sharp dramedy about resilience and found families. Elizabeth takes a job as the host of a cooking show that's steeped in science, and ...

  13. Lessons in Chemistry (novel)

    Lessons in Chemistry is a novel by Bonnie Garmus.Published by Doubleday in April 2022, it is Garmus's debut novel. It tells the story of Elizabeth Zott, who becomes a beloved cooking show host in 1960s Southern California after being fired as a chemist four years earlier. It was adapted into an Apple TV+ miniseries that debuted on 13 October 2023.

  14. Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel

    Lessons in Chemistry is a page-turning and highly satisfying tale: zippy, zesty, and Zotty." — Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle " Lessons in Chemistry is a breath of fresh air—a witty, propulsive, and refreshingly hopeful novel populated with singular characters. This book is an utter delight—wry, warm, and compulsively readable."

  15. Review: 'Lessons in Chemistry' by Bonnie Garmus

    Because "Lessons in Chemistry" is, from a purely technical standpoint, a pretty clumsy and unsophisticated book. Witty, and very good-natured, but windy and ill-proportioned. Unlikely coincidences and ridiculous accidents abound. Characters lack nuance. Good people begin as righteously good and are eventually seen as such by everyone.

  16. Book Review: 'Lessons in Chemistry' by Bonnie Garmus

    I'm always wary of books that have been hyped up to the nth degree, since very rarely do they live up to said hype. Fortunately that wasn't the case for Bonnie Garmus' incredibly buzzy 2022 novel, Lessons in Chemistry (which Apple recently adapted into a series starring Brie Larson, FYI) — I finally got around to reading it this month and was in love with the book by the end of the ...

  17. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    Lessons in Chemistry. by Bonnie Garmus. Publication Date: April 5, 2022. Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor. Hardcover: 400 pages. Publisher: Doubleday. ISBN-10: 038554734X. ISBN-13: 9780385547345. A site dedicated to book lovers providing a forum to discover and share commentary about the books and authors they enjoy.

  18. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus: 9780385547345

    About Lessons in Chemistry #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: "a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention" (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.• STREAM ON APPLE TV+ This novel is "irresistible, satisfying and ...

  19. Book Review: 'Lessons in Chemistry' by Bonnie Garmus

    This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 so I was delighted to be granted a review copy - thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review. The story is about a highly gifted Chemist, Elizabeth Zott, who is carrying out important research at the Hastings Research Institute - … Continue reading Book Review: 'Lessons in Chemistry' by Bonnie Garmus

  20. Lessons in Chemistry review

    Lessons in Chemistry is a wholly enjoyable watch, just as the book was a wholly enjoyable read (apart from the dog). But, like the book, it still carries with it the sense of an opportunity wasted.

  21. Review of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    A charming, funny debut novel about a chemist turned cooking show host. Bonnie Garmus's debut, Lessons in Chemistry, introduces readers to an exceptional woman struggling to succeed in a male-dominated field. When we first meet 30-year-old Elizabeth Zott, the year is 1961, and we quickly learn she's the single mother of a precocious child and the unlikely star of a wildly popular weekday ...

  22. Lessons in Chemistry Summary, Review And Key Themes

    Also Read: West With Giraffes Summary and Review Lessons in Chemistry Review. From my perspective, Lessons in Chemistry is more than just a book; it's a journey, an education, and an emotional roller coaster that leaves you both exhausted and exhilarated.. At its heart, this is a story of resilience, as we follow the protagonist, Elizabeth Zott, through an assortment of trials that seem ...

  23. 8 major changes 'Lessons in Chemistry' has made from the ...

    Apple TV+'s "Lessons in Chemistry" is based on Bonnie Garmus' 2022 novel of the same name. We rounded up the biggest differences between the adaptation and the bestselling book.

  24. Lessons In Chemistry: Full Book Summary

    "Lessons in Chemistry" is a celebration of resilience and the pursuit of knowledge. It highlights the challenges faced by women in male-dominated fields and the impact of breaking stereotypes. The novel underscores the importance of education, self-respect, and the fight for equality, all delivered with wit and warmth.

  25. Lessons in Chemistry

    Lessons in Chemistry is a 2023 American historical drama television miniseries developed by Lee Eisenberg, based on the novel of the same name by Bonnie Garmus.It stars Brie Larson as chemist Elizabeth Zott who begins hosting her own feminist cooking show in 1960s America.. The series began streaming on Apple TV+ on October 13, 2023. It received positive reviews from critics, and received ...

  26. Lessons in Chemistry movie review (2023)

    Even the dog is perfectly cast. "Lessons in Chemistry" is a joy to watch, an escape with a clear-cut and righteous perspective. With Larson leading the way, the show challenges us to rise to our best possible selves, even as it presents a simplified view of the challenges women of all races encounter.

  27. Stephanie (TheBookishBoyMom)'s review of Lessons in Chemistry

    5/5: "Courage is the root of change and change is what we are chemically designed for." I am livid it took me so long to pick this book up because I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. While reading, I sent a friend a text saying this book makes me want to text/call every female in my life and tell them how badass they are, how capable they are, how anything they want, they can achieve. Elizabeth Zott is ...