Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus: A Feminist Big Bang Theory

Elizabeth Zott is a highly talented chemist and also an uncompromising woman, struggling to make her mark in the patriarchal academia of the 1960s, just before the counterculture movements. She meets her soul mate, celebrated scientist Calvin Evans, at the Hastings Research Institute, a place where they don't seem to comprehend the concept of equality that well. A twist of fate renders her a single mother, an amateur home-scientist, and the star of an afternoon cooking show where she teaches housewives cooking, chemistry, how to stand up for themselves, and what they dream about. 

(Potential spoilers ahead.) 
Lessons in Chemistry is a novel written by Bonnie Garmus that details the struggles that a woman has to face and the prejudices she has to endure when the world around her is not ready to believe in her talent. The book is written as fast-paced, feel-good historical fiction with elements of romance and comedy in liberal doses. With its sharp observations and striking wit, it defied my expectations. I loved how it nicely tied up chemistry to its plot, especially during the television shooting parts. It also manages to be inspiring for most parts, except in some places where it settles for mediocre fairy tale tropes. 

The entire plot is centred around the protagonist, whose character is well established. Elizabeth Zott makes her presence felt through the entire 400 pages of the novel. Her determination, steadfastness, and unique thought process are an asset to the book, even when the writer doesn't devise for her a decent character arc. I also liked that many other characters are also equally interesting, except for a few who come towards the end functioning as plot devices, for the purpose of putting a break on the plot to prevent it from crashing. Six-thirty, the dog, is an interesting presence that gave the story a unique flavour. 

Even when the novel was funny, interesting, and thundered on quickly like a horse on a heroine, I felt it lacked in a few sections. The ending was kind of patchwork, where all the Zott's established strengths were rendered useless. A stroke of luck was a pretty lame idea to help her achieve her dreams. The characters, all of them, are pretty static. None of them has any spiritual growth and remains the same from the beginning to the end of their respective arcs. 

But the biggest issue for me was that the novel never gave me a space to use my imagination. The best books engage readers in a two-way conversation, but not this one. The writing of Lessons in Chemistry is very visual and has a very 'laid out' feel. It's more like the script of a show than an organic, breathing novel. It's obvious why they made a series out of it. 

It reminded me of The Big Bang Theory, another nerdy entertainment behemoth that shares many elements with the novel, much more than the common premises of science and research. One-note characters who are established right from the beginning, the pervasiveness of science in even personal spaces, a general aversion to deep dives in science, and exclusive jokes that solely depend on their delivery were some of the common traits that I thought of while reading the book. Overall, Lessons in Chemistry is a pleasing, entertaining feminist read that provides a feel-good, inspiring tale and many moments of hilarity.