Oh, You Read This Book, Too? Shocked
Not sure my lighthearted sarcasm was detected, but rest assured, it’s there.
I think everyone and their uncle’s cousin read this book, and that’s amazing for Bonnie Garmus. So many accolades went to Lessons in Chemistry last year, and I’m pretty sure that the hold at the library went on for months for this. Thank goodness they have like. 20 copies to lend out.
Because it seemed that this was one of everyone’s favorite reads last year, I couldn’t help but become intrigued. I had intentions of buying this book, then I ran into a problem.
The ratings on this book were very mixed.
“Best book of the year.”
“Absolutely unreadable.”
“My fav book! So good.”
“Never have I ever read such an unrealistic and ridiculous novel.”
You can see my hesitations to jump into this, right?
Well. When I finally placed a hold on the book and it became available for me to read, got to discover what all the hype and hate was about.
It was quite the ride, lemme tell ya.
“Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.”
21st Century Feminism Meets 1960s Setting
So the premise of the story: Elizabeth Zott is a chemist in California in the 50s and 60s, struggling to gain recognition and credibility in the field. Every turn she makes to take a step forward in progress in her work and in the industry, some man comes and steamrolls her. After said steamrolling, Elizabeth tends to get on her feminist soapbox and rationalizes why the men that surround her are idiots and are inferior to her. And to her point, she’s not wrong, most of the guys in this story are as dumb as a box of rocks, but Lizzy isn’t exactly a lovable character (I’ll explain my thoughts later).
As time passes, Elizabeth finds love in her work and at the workplace, but, like her mysterious and dark past, all good things apparently come to an end. Very quickly, Zott finds herself out of a job and struggling to keep the lights on for not only herself, but also her daughter.
And her dog, who understands 697 words or something ridiculous like that.
This story follows Zott on her journey to put food on the table by, literally, putting food on the table. It’s sort of by chance that she is thrown into a lead role for a television show for housewives in need of dinner ideas. But, with Zott being Zott, it’s not just a cooking show.
She’s also teaching her viewers (I.e., housewives), the basics of chemistry while cooking. Easy peasy.
Can You Play Two Truths and a Lie With a Book?
Here’s the thing. This book has all the elements (ha) of a great book for my taste. Strong female character, mysterious twists and turns in their backstory, and an interesting way to add some educational pieces to the story.
I think what threw me off is how everything started. It was as if all these crazy situations were thrown into the story all at once, and then on top of these crazy scenarios, Elizabeth claps everything with in an equally crazy manner.
It would be foolish of me to assume that there were zero (0) women who aspired to be in a STEM field in the 50s, were sexually assaulted and ridiculed in the office, had their work stolen right in front of them, and were blamed for other people’s wrongdoings because they were a woman.
It would also be foolish for me to say that there weren’t any women that had progressive thoughts and found themselves championing women’s rights loudly and proudly wherever they went.
… But, when all of this is depicted in a book, plus we add a female character who is smart, beautiful, rational, passionate, eloquent when she needs to be, super athletic and competitive… it makes you sit there and go, “So… when does the other shoe drop?”
I had to believe so many things could be true at the same time in this story that it made it difficult for me to fully immerse myself. I kept wondering if one of the characterizations or plot points was all just a spoof, that perhaps one of the things was actually just a little lie until boom! You turn the page and it all makes sense. That didn’t happen, unfortunately.
Don’t get me wrong, I was captivated from beginning to end, and I found myself wanting to continue reading. But at the same time, there were too many instances where I had to set the book down and go “Really? Are you FR right now? Is there a time machine somewhere that I don’t know about?”
The dog’s POV was a bit of a surprise, too. Nice to know we had that perspective, but I grew agitated with Six Thirty early on.
Also… not a fan of Mad. I mean, a super genius kid that probably doesn’t know how to do bunny ears for her shoes? Okay—
What’s the Chemical Symbol for Star Rating?
⭐️ TLDR Rating ⭐️: 2/5 stars! Was difficult for me to sit down and say “Wow, yes. This feels like the experience of someone in the 1960s.” The characters also weren’t my favorite, I found them annoying more often that not… But, I found myself gravitating toward the book until I finally finished it and couldn’t put it down.
At the end of the day, I totally get why this book was so popular.
But I don’t think it’s a book that was meant for me.
The characters for me were a little too obtuse at times, and I never truly felt myself rooting for any of them. I simply absorbed the information and turned the page, waiting for the book to reach it’s conclusion.
What kept me captivated was the mysterious undertones about Elizabeth’s past, as well as her partner. That was a more interesting story to me.
The end itself wrapped everything up nicely, but it was almost too nice. Nothing was left out of place, all the test tubes found themselves perfectly aligned in their little chemistry set.
I’m not saying I need hyper-realism in my books to be happy, but I think for this particular genre, there’s this need to be transported back in time, to feel immersed in the world as if it’s the 1960s. Instead it just felt like 2023 with a sprinkle of absurd 1960s thinking.
Do We Think Six Thirty Knows the Words “Like” and “Follow”?
Here we are, at the end of this review, contemplating life. Truth be told, I had expectations of giving this book a one star rating prior to reading it (based on other reviews and rumblings of what it’s about), so I’m actually very surprised that I found this worthy of an extra star, and I finished the book rather quickly. This book was a quick and surprisingly entertaining book to read, and sometimes, that’s all you need <3
If you’re interested in buying this book, might I suggest you purchase it from your local bookstore? That, or the library is clutch if you don’t mind waiting a bit!
Okay, and that’s all she wrote! Thanks for reading this review, hope you enjoyed this! If you did, please show your support on this particular review and feel free to peruse my other blog posts. My YouTube channel is also linked below if you care to check that out! Thanks again for reading, and I’ll catch you in the next one. 🫰
JEMY
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