Misogyny & Miscommunication
Summer Book Club | Lessons in Chemistry | Ch. 1-12
This post is part of The Nook Summer Book Club series! There are spoilers mentioned below, so if you haven’t yet picked up our June selection—Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus—grab a copy and read chapters 1-12 first. We’ll see you back here when you’re done!
The past few years have been really great for romance, particularly for books of the quirky, quick-witted, science-y set. (Think Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis and A Cosmic Kind of Love by Samantha Young. ) These romance novels take genre fiction and level it up to upmarket fiction, where the stories still offer our favorite tried-and-true tropes but also require something deeper and more intellectual of the reader.
Lessons in Chemistry goes even further, I think. But for its humor, and that exceptionally sunny cover, I would say it’s actually a pretty dark book. In the first few chapters, we’re confronted with an almost-casually described rape of the protagonist and the repeated dismissal and outright discrimination of women, thanks to a 1950s setting in one of the most male-dominated fields of industry: research science.
We root for Elizabeth Zott from the very first page, and not just because she’s female, but because we as the readers can see what everyone else—even Calvin at the outset—cannot:
That she’s the fucking best.
What I love about Elizabeth is her earnest belief that things will change if she just continues to produce good work. I, too, ascribe to that sort of rose-colored viewpoint, believing that real character and integrity will always win in the end. It’s the believer in me and probably the novelist, too. And despite the abuse that’s heaped on Elizabeth for daring to be a smart woman among men (and a pretty one, at that), she still holds fast to her convictions. We watch her from almost seventy years down the road and cringe because we know what she’s up against, even if she—with her incredible intellect—does not. It’s infuriating, but we continue with the story because we hope. Or, I do, at least. I read each page hoping that this story will remain true to the tropes and end with a happy resolution for our heartbroken heroine.
Speaking of, I need to get mad for a second…
*cracks knuckles*
Like, what in the actual?! Did we really have to kill off the only other human who had faith in this woman? I get it. It’s a plot device. But I loved Calvin and I loved him with Elizabeth. It’s too much, especially now that we know she’s a pregnant, unmarried, too-smart woman in a decade where women like her were routinely sent away “to the country” and came back nine months later mere shells of themselves.
I want to call this a bad trope, but the unfortunate reality is that it’s true.
I don’t have to like it, though.
Still, Garmus is such an excellent writer—with a dry narrative voice that simply delights me—that I keep on reading because she’s just that good. This plot in the hands of another writer could have been a messy attempt at making a point, but with Garmus it hooks. It entertains while making no attempt to keep us happy, and that is a hard skill to master as a writer. She plays on our emotions and prejudices with such wry humor that I am thoroughly entertained even though I’m also thoroughly pissed off.
I’ll admit, though, that the miscommunication trope has never been a favorite of mine, often because it’s written in such an overdramatic, unrealistic way. I hate thinking of characters missing out on good things simply because they wouldn’t open their mouths, but Garmus has given this trope its due. She has captured the kind of thing most people do in their daily lives where they’re simply going about their business with private thoughts versus the characters having a full-blown existential crisis about saying anything that’s on their minds. I’m here for it, for now.
In the meantime, here’s hoping we get some good news in the next chapters!
Share your thoughts on this week’s reading in the comments below 👇🏻
This week, we will be reading chapters 13-24. I’ll be sharing thoughts in the chat and wrapping up with another post next Saturday, so stay tuned and happy reading!