Prasetya Nababan

Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel

Book by Bonnie Garmus

DETAILS

Publisher : Doubleday; First Edition (April 5, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 400 pages ISBN-10 : 038554734X ISBN-13 : 978-0385547345 Item Weight : 1.56 pounds Dimensions : 6.53 x 1.36 x 9.58 inches Best Sellers Rank: #29 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Humorous Fiction #3 in Mothers & Children Fiction #6 in Literary Fiction (Books) , NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: a “formidable, unapologetic and inspiring” ( PARADE ) scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show in this novel that is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you that change takes time and always requires heat” ( The New York Times Book Review ). A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, GoodReads "A unique heroine ... you'll find yourself wishing she wasn’t fictional." — Seattle Times 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. Read more

REVIEW

This novel follows the twists and turns in the life of the heroine: Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant research scientist who is tired of being a second-class person just because she is a woman. Elizabeth is a top-grade research schemist but can't get treated as an equal [much less be lauded for being better than pretty much everyone in her department] and when they demote her and the the department head steals her work and publishes as his own she quits. She meets her soul mate, Calvin Evans, who treats her as an equal partner and recognizes her brilliance. They get a dog and Calvin asks what they should name it. She looks at her wrist watch and says "it's six thirty" and so it was. This is typical of her most unemotionally rational approach to everyday nonsense, for example that women should wear comfortable clothes and all the other ridiculous (and irrational) social "rules". By a crazy circumstance she ends up doing an afternoon cooking show "Supper at Six". They wanted the usual mostly air-headed afternoon cooking show based on the assumption that bored housewives didn't want to bothered with substantial programming, Zott would have none of it. She basically assumed that long-underestimated housewives deserved to be treated as smart people who have been rudely sidelined and should be *taught* what cooking was all about. This makes the show's producer go apoplectic but the show was a hit! She was right: women didn't like being talked down to. She insisted on using "sodium chloride". She described dished by explaining the chemical reactions that made them happen. And the viewing audience [and the women *crowding* into studio to watch it live] loved it. Instead of having the quick death that the producer expected, it was a smash hit. It got syndicated around the country and she was a national hero --- among women. They not only learned to cook the dishes and the chemistry behind it, but also that they had been treated as second class citizens.. and minds...for far too long. LIfe magazine was going to do a cover story about her and they assumed that it'd be the usual pry into their personal life and get cute anecdotes for a feel-good story about a surprising TV star. The reporter who was interviewing her got gobsmacked by her and didn't write the article that Life expected: Despite what Elizabeth Zott will tell you, Supper at Six is not just an introduction to chemistry, he wrote that day on the plane. It’s a thirty-minute, five-day-a-week lesson in life. And not in who we are or what we’re made of, but rather, who we’re capable of becoming. I couldn't have said it better myself. Go read this book!

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