When I read Bonnie Garmus’s New York Times’ best-selling debut novel Lessons In Chemistry, it reminded me of the old Monty Python phrase, And now for something completely different. The story begins in the 1950s and it reads a bit like an old-timey television show. The plot eventually evolves into a chemistry-themed television cooking show, but getting there takes some time.

Elizabeth Zott is a highly motivated, somewhat eccentric young Ph.D. chemistry student who is denied permission to advance in her chosen field when she reports the sexual advances of her thesis advisor. In the fallout, she settles for being a minor scientist working for a minor research firm in Colorado, where she is far better qualified and capable at her job than all of the men she works with and for. Does this sound like a familiar scenario? We’re reminded that it was infinitely more difficult for women to achieve recognition in the 1950s and 60s than today and that feminism still has a long way to go.

When she falls in love with the research firm’s Nobel-prize-winning star chemist and competitive rower Calvin Evans, she suffers further humiliation and discrimination when her own research is falsely credited to her association with him. Their brilliant connection does, however, yield a brilliant child who understandably is beyond precocious. Even their dog is gifted and somewhat eccentric.

Amateur psychologists might label Elizabeth Zott to be somewhere on the Asperger’s spectrum. She pursues her feminist beliefs and professional passions with a single-minded zeal and determination that reminded me of Jenny Fields in John Irving’s The World According to Garp which I read many decades ago. Both women were a generation or two ahead of their time.

If you enjoyed the movie Barbie (which I definitely and surprisingly did), then you’ll love the retro-feminist tone of Lessons In Chemistry. There’s a joyful rhythm to Garmus’s writing that will lift you up and keep you reading. It starts slowly, then gains momentum with a definite story arc and then speeds along like it has effortlessly shifted into fourth gear and the engine’s humming.

Do not be deterred by the title. Chemistry was one of my worst subjects in school (in fact, my aptitude in all STEM subjects was and still is abysmal) and I could never imagine finding something with this title to be so enjoyable.

Bonnie Garmus is a late-blooming boomer who published this amazing first novel at the age of sixty-six. The author is also a competitive swimmer and rower as well as being an inspiration to every struggling writer out there. The content is intelligent, wry, and thought-provoking. Some parts are laugh-out-loud funny. I do not want to spoil any of this oddly delicious story. While I’ll never love chemistry, I did love the book, Lessons in Chemistry. You won’t be disappointed.

If you are unable to obtain this book at your local library or bookstore, you can have it delivered directly to your door from Amazon by clicking on this link.

(Disclosure: I may receive a teeny, tiny commission. Thank you!)