Lessons in Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus★★★☆☆   3.5/5—A story carried purely by its supporting cast and dry-wit humour.The beginning was such a drag, middle was great, and the ending was a bit too fairy-tale like for what had happened in the story. I almost put the book down literally the first chapter in because she was waxing poetics about how precocious Madeline was and I nearly dropped the book right then and there. Sorry, I really just don't care to read about a genius 5 year old kid that could read beyond her age - I don't think this is as special as you think it is.I probably wasn't convinced by the story until 30% in when the dry humour really started to kick in. I'll admit - I while I understood and vaguely appreciate the attempt of feminist messaging that the story tried to push, I greatly disliked the way it was delivered both plot and character-wise. Elizabeth Zott is in short, fairly disagreeable, and was just a blank-slate vehicle to push the feminist message and story. I believe there was a line where she says “This is water, or more commonly known as H2O” and I just had to roll my eyes - this woman is pretentious. This whole “This is water, or more commonly known as H2O” spiel that sort of went on throughout the whole book (her insistence on calling the name by it's molecular make up first and foremost) deterred from the message and felt unrealistic. As a woman that works in a specialised subset of a very broad industry, industry jargon makes it harder for the average layman to understand and to even begin to want to understand - it's alienating at best, especially in Zott's time. I've literally seen people's eyes glaze over when they ask what I do, when I do not make an effort to explain as plainly as possible. I find it difficult to believe that these broadly uneducated women watching her on the television would be so moved as to suddenly change their lives - in fact, I imagine the average woman of the 1950s or 60s would probably scorn her. I wish Zott's feminist approach was a bit more realistic for the its time. Zott's approach would not be too out of the ordinary in a modern setting. However, its place in a very conservative time is jarring and unbelievable. In fact, her know-it-all attitude would be off putting to most people in this day and age, honestly.The light at the end of the tunnel was certainly the supporting cast. When Garmus wanted to make the character likeable, boy were they likeable. When they weren't - well, unfortunately, that may simply be the majority of the characters. While I'm glad it wasn't an “all men are terrible” story, it was pretty damn close to it. Pine, Hariett, Dr. Mason, and even Frask's little redemption arc were truly what made me enjoy the story.The ending was a little bit too tied up neatly for me. I was not crazy about how she went back to Hastings, disliked how there were no depiction of how she became a well respected scientist (or even tangible proof of her capabilities), her research is all conveniently funded by Calvin's wealthy mother. I feel like in the end, she has neither proved her worth nor achieved her goals with her own two hands, which seems a bit odd in regards to the message the story was trying to push.Overall, I wish the story had tackled the difficulties women faced in her time period with a bit more nuance. I think it would have been nice to dive a bit more on what it's like to be a single mother in a very misogynistic society; or what if Mad was just an average child with a brilliant mother, and her dealing with that difference in maybe drive and achievement; or if Calvin had just lived and she was able to forge her own path despite the adversities she faced. Side-note: I greatly disliked the anthromorphism of Six-Thirty (cute name though). It added nothing to the story, and felt out of place for a story following the life of a scientist. Similarly, the weird spiel on religion that had no depth to it whatsoever. I think the choice to be religious or not is an interesting topic that has persisted throughout centuries and will continue to persist, but the way Garmus went about it was questionable. Frankly, it added nothing to the story apart from contributing bloat - and I say this a staunch atheist.Although I realise this review is fairly negative, I did enjoy reading this story. It was a fun little afternoon read on a slow Friday, and for being so disappointed by debut novels I've been reading lately, this one was fairly impressive. The prose somewhat reminds me of bedtime stories written for children, but not necessarily in a bad way. Lessons In Chemistry doesn't provide any profound takeaways, and I would recommend a light-hearted, unserious approach to this when reading.