Date: 28 May 2023
Location: Joyce
A dozen bookers met to discuss Lessons in Chemistry.
This was a popular book with the Bookers, which almost all of us read. One admitted to a lot of highlighting in the book and another actually dug up an old chemistry book from the 50’s for reference.
As to our standard question, “How did the author treat women?”, we all agreed that the author’s treatment of women was excellent in terms how they were portrayed in spite of their treatment in the sexist, scientific world of the ’50’s.
Men, on the other hand, did not come across so well. While there were a couple of nice guys in the book, most were real jerks, at best, and our consensus was that the Bishop was the vilest. Also, we were pleased to learn that you don’t always need a gun or knife to fend off a predator when you have a good sharp pencil.
The principal character is Elizabeth Zott striving to gain respect as a chemist in a “man’s world”. There were several other characters that we liked. Calvin was Zott’s genius lover and father of her daughter. We really wished they had gotten married before his unfortunate demise, but that would have resulted in a very different story. We also liked the Priest, of uncertain faith; the next door neighbor, who became a godsend to Zott; and Mad Zott, Elizabeth’s very precocious daughter.
One of our favorite characters was Six-Thirty the smartest dog we’ve ever heard of. Not only did he know hundreds of words, he intentionally flunked out of bomb sniffing school when he realized that this was a very hazardous activity that could get him killed.
To some of us the success of Zott’s chemistry-laden cooking show seemed a little far-fetched and the ending was kind of weird. But the bottom line is that we all enjoyed the book.
As usual we completed the meeting with some fine food thanks to Joyce.
— Bob