Lessons in Chemistry
I have always been a Science aficionado as far back as I remember. Wondering how things work and asking why to myself was a favourite pass time to have fun inside my head!! However amongst all the science subjects, Organic Chemistry was definitely not my forte. There was one test in class 11 for which my sister taught me most of the lessons in chemistry throughout the night. She was in her MBBS course then.Both of us did not sleep that night. Next day my sister told me, Ginia, I went throught the day feeling like a zombie, I cant imagine how you sat through the test!
Lessons in Chemistry, the book by Bonnie Garmus
But my oh my! What a book it turned out to be. I was absolutely bowled over by it.
Book Blurb: What is Lesson in Chemistry About??
Book Blurb: What is Lesson in
Research 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.
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.
Source: Goodreads
What I Liked?
This book has a combination of two topics that are very close to my heart. (barring the chemistry part, but I liked it to some extent in this book!).Women’s empowerment and cooking! Might sound like two very contrasting topics, but believe me Bonny Garmus has stitched together this story like a magician. Lessons in Chemistry is one of the most fun as well as emotionally upwelling reads that I have read in a while.
I love the protagonist Elizabeth Zott and the little notes that she leaves for her daughter in her lunch box. A small example of one such note.
This was the first excerpt of the book that made me sit up and realise that okay! This is not just any other fiction book. This one is different for sure.
Elizabeth Zott and why I loved her!
Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone with the wind had said “ With enough courage, you can do without a reputation!”.
Elizabeth Zott follows that to the ‘T’!! She is a female scientist in 1950’s to 1960’s and faces all sorts of chauvinism in a strongly patriarchal society and gender apartheid in the workplace as well as outside. But her sheer grit and will power proves her to be a force to be beckoned with!
Supper at Six
She is pushed to a corner due to her circumstances, biased against by the scientific community dominated by the “old boys club” and deprived of basic dignity as a scientist. But she rises like a soaring phoenix and becomes a household name by becoming the face of Americas favourite cooking show. Elizabeth Zott was the indisputable star of Supper at Six where which she used only scientific terminology to explain her dishes.
Women and Kitchens!
In many parts of the world, and in India, a very large section of the population still believe, that a woman’s place is in the kitchen! However accomplished a woman are who works full time, somehow by default domestic and kitchen responsibilities are by default hers. And if these responsibilities are not shouldered satisfactorily, the judgement train is always whistling at the station! And these extreme biases are practiced largely both by men as well as some of the women!
Should you read Lessons in Chemistry?
So my suggestion to all such men and women our there, please read Lessons in Chemistry. It is a revolutionary book which is a fun and deep read and can largely strengthen the women’s empowerment movement!
And if you do read this book, look out for my favourite character, an intelligent dog named 6.30 with an ever increasing vocabulary!
You may ask is Elizabeth Zott a real person? My answer is yes. She is me, she is you and she is every woman who has faced discrimination and gender bias in some form or the other in a world which is largely unequal even in 2022!
This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter.
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