Lessons in Chemistry: The Book, The Show, Balance

   

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Published by Doubleday, April 5, 2022

Genre: Fiction

Format: Listened via Audible

In Bonnie Garmus' interview with Wheeler Centre, she reflects on the 28% of women that make up STEM careers, noting the reason she made Elizabeth Zott, the main character of Lessons in Chemistry,  a scientist is because "science knows better." Yes! Science knows that the brains of men and women have some differences, but none of them have anything to do with depth of thinking. Regardless of how society functions or misfunctions, science knows better. Garmus uses characters in the book to settle into this idea. Elizabeth teaches Six-Thirty, the dog who becomes a part of the family, to understand 900 words. Why is it so strange to consider a dog learning English, says Garmus, when almost nobody tries to learn to speak dog? Science knows better. Whatever we think of the practice, some dogs are smart enough to build a vocabulary in human languages. Garmus uses this book to shed light on things that are true, but not often spotlighted.

Chemistry is the science of balance: photosynthesis, combustion, blood chemistry, respiration. Really, all sciences seek balance: the rise and fall of a swing, the sail and the keel. I loved Garmus's metaphor of rowing. Without a perfectly synchronized pull, the boat spins. Zott meets Calvin Evans, someone who represents the yin to his yang. 

I watched Apple TV's take on this book, and I enjoyed it. Attempting to address some of the critiques of the book, they lost the edge of it. Here are a few of the critiques of Lessons in Chemistry Apple TV addressed with revisions.

1. MEN: Zott's soulmate is the only man portrayed in the book who isn't seriously damaged: an abuser, a liar, a porn addict. The show addresses this by throwing in a mix of men who don't appear in the novel and adjusting some characters, like Calvin's old buddy the rowing coxswain, so they're more layered and probably more realistic. There are lots of good men.

2. RELIGION: Even though Zott's character stands for freedom, especially the freedom of women to participate in the scientific community, there's little place for faith in this book. The reverend with whom Calvin trades letters seems to be convinced of his own stupidity by the time their exchanges end. Apple addresses the lack of religious diversity in the book by making the reverend intelligent and more present in the story.

3. ZOTT'S EDGES: One Goodreads reviewer made it clear she's tired of main characters who have no social awareness and seem to have been transposed from a different era. There does seem to be a hole in Zott's backstory. Ok, Zott, you grew up with a father who sold religion like a "traveling salesman." Your mom left the country with her new boyfriend. How did you land in grad school for chemistry after leaving your family? Where do all of your extreme (for the 1950s) ideas come from? Apple doesn't explain the backstory, and they iron out some of Zott's edges and the inconsistencies with the time period. For example, in the show, Zott is an assistant in some other scientist's lab versus running her own lab. In the show, she agrees to work with Evans versus maintaining her independent research. In the book, Zott teaches Six Thirty, the dog, hundreds of words, and the dog actually picks up the daughter from school on some days. Apple TV mainstreams some of the weirder details of the character. I think this makes the show a little less interesting than the book, but probably more believable.

 4. DICKENS … ERR?

Spoiler: Apple TV leaves Zott as a professor (with no answer about her doctorate). In an emotional montage, they overlay a quotation from Great Expectations on sunny B-roll of Zott's life after the show. 

It’s implied that Great Expectations was Calvin’s favorite book. The lighting and sentimentality just doesn’t resonate here. Did anyone in the editing room read this scene? In GE, Pip realizes the superficiality and meaninglessness of social status. His reflection comes after he meets Havisham and Estella in their upperclass home. Joe, a blacksmith who is his sister’s husband and a father figure, says of the king that before the king could issue grand proclamations, he had to be a kid learning the alphabet. In essence, you have to start somewhere. Does it fit into the montage because Zott was like orphaned Pip, set on becoming uncommon/upperclass? But Pip ultimately realizes the whole pursuit of status is stupid. Does this bit fit, then, with the montage, or does this feel like an AI “cool quote book” misstep?

“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”

5. EDUCATION

The show puts Zott pulling her daughter out of public schools because she’s gifted. Garmus writes that we’re “byproducts of our upbringings” and victims of  “lackluster educational systems.” How is any character in this story a victim aside from maybe Calvin in the way he exited the story? Some folks want to preach from all sides of the pulpit as long as they get to preach. The book would be even better with less of the didactic tone.

LOVELY BIT

“Courage is the root of change—and change is what we’re chemically designed to do.”

RATING

Even though some of Zott’s stances seemed extra and beyond her time, I loved stepping into her world.