The novel, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus takes place around the 1960s and is mainly about a young woman named Elizabeth Zoth who goes from being a chemist to a TV icon. Along the way, she meets a man, who works with her in the lab and they end up adopting a dog who they name Six-thirty after a story behind Elizabeth finding the dog. Elizabeth is very passionate about women's rights and how she wants to be known for her scientific work and not taken for granted by men as she had experienced in her past. Later in the book, Calvin ( her boyfriend) asks to marry Elizabeth, but she refuses no matter how much she loves him to allow her to be seen for who she is without being accused that her work was done by her husband. Elizabeth does not want marriage to get in the way of her research, as she wants “ to be Elizabeth Zott” and finds it very “important to[her]” ( Garmus 52). Being Elizabeth Zott was not just about allowing her to receive credit, but it also meant that she wanted to overcome the societal norms that were challenging for women. Calvin later dies after being hit by a police car, and Elizabeth goes from falling in love in the research institute where she works, to becoming a single mom with her cooking TV show. Elizabeth has a child named Madeline and raises her as a single mom with the support of the others around her. Elizabeth Zott becomes the successful woman she dreamed of being, but instead of being credited for her work in chemistry, she finds success in her cooking show.
I found this book a very pleasant book to read as it showed the importance of women and their role in the world. Not only did Elizabeth become successful in her work with chemistry, but she overcame the death of her lover, raised a child, created a cooking show, and became a TV icon. This provided me with hope for the future of women as she wanted to overcome the societal norms of women being taken for granted of and ignored for their work and the importance that women have in this world. I loved reading this book, as the author used lots of detail to describe the situations of the characters and used a lot of context to explain the background of the characters. Garmus was also comedic in her words which made me enjoy the book even more. I cannot wait to read more of Garmus’s books as I love this genre and am very interested in future books like this.
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