LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus

SPOILER ALERT To actually talk about this book you are going to have to know what happens. There is a lot I don't share, but this is the main gist of the book.

I know I said I have a busy week and wasn't going to post, but I finished reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I didn't want to forget my thoughts before getting to this post, so here goes!

Lessons in Chemistry is big in the reading world right now. I belong to a couple different Facebook reading groups and there is a lot of chatter about this book.

Set in the 1960s but bouncing back into the 1950s, we follow the life of chemistry genius Elizabeth Zott. Working in a male domineering world where it is thought she should be barefoot, pregnant, and stirring a pot in the kitchen, she just wants the recognition she never receives, but deserves, for her work. Zott sets herself on a trajectory to save what she thinks is a cultural abuse on women that expects them to give up all hopes and dreams to stay at home, and keep the home fires burning. But that's not where it ends.

Zott has had an extremely complicated life beginning with her father and mother. Her father was a preacher convicted later for tax evasion. That's not it, though. Her only beloved sibling, a brother, is discovered to be gay. (Zott already knew this and was fine with it.) The father told him that God hated him, so he went out and hung himself. Elizabeth was 10 years old when this happened, her brother 16.

Elizabeth Zott has determined to never give anyone authority over her. When she falls in love with a brilliant scientist, she refuses to marry him. Instead they end up living together. Through an unfortunate happening he died, and she finds out she is pregnant. The complications continue to grow.

Zott ends up fired from her job, and through a random series of events is offered a job as the host of a cooking food show. This goes against everything that she stands for, but she has a child to feed. She takes it, but refuses to become the stereo-typical smiling, beautiful clothes and make-up host. No, she sets out to teach women chemistry in the kitchen, to give them hope outside the four walls they find themselves trapped in.

The book deals with so much more than this thread I've given you. It includes topics such as rape in the workplace, sexual abuse in a boys home, value of life -people are just animals, etc, etc.

BUT EVERYTHING BOILS DOWN TO ONE THING - a complete and utter rejection of God. When asked multiple times throughout the book about her feelings about God, especially since she is in a science related field, she emphatically denies Him. I have to ask myself if I can blame her after all that she has been through and the answer may surprise you. No, I can't. BUT, and there's a lot in this but, she hasn't come to know the TRUE GOD. Her parents actions were not representing God. Her co-workers were not demonstrating God. Honestly, I walk away from a book like this intensely sad that this is someone's view on God, because it is! This author, Bonnie Garmus, is speaking to us! My heart weeps for her that this is her view. This book is nothing more than a human trying in her own power to take the shreds of her life and piece them together. I pray that the author has an encounter with someone who can introduce her to the real Savior!

HEADS UP- Alongside all the other things mentioned, there is language. There are f-bombs that pop up periodically.