by Bonnie Garmus, 2022
I loved this book! It was recommended by Jan M. and Marney K. It was an engrossing novel about 1960’s America, a lady chemist named Elizabeth Zott, who faces sexual harassment, assaults, and prejudice at every turn. She meets the love of her life, Calvin Evans, but refuses to marry him because she doesn’t want his fame to color her research progress. He dies tragically, but leaves her with a present, a baby girl named Mad. This little family, including the amazing dog named Six Thirty, and a kind-hearted, loving neighbor named Harriet Sloane, are so delightful. They are their own selves. They do not become what others think they should be.
Elizabeth ends up becoming famous because she captures the 1960’s housewives hearts teaching cooking as a chemist would. She explains to them all the different chemical reactions. She calls salt Sodium Chloride. She refuses to wear tight dresses and mix cocktails for the man of the house. She wears a lab coat and trousers. She is beautiful, but never smiles. She does not believe in God because her father was a horrible, horrible man who used God to make money and spread fear. Her Mom was only looking for the next man to take care of her. Calvin Evans, the love of her life, was also hurt deeply by religion – he grew up in the All Saints Boys Home. Because of the lies of the bishop who was assigned to the home, he was stuck there his whole childhood. He never learned the truth.
A really, really good story. Very, very likeable characters – Elizabeth, Mad (Madeline), Six Thirty, Harriet. There is a protestant minister who befriends Mad and then Elizabeth, but he also doesn’t believe in God. Harriet is a devout Catholic and she loves deeply and purely and prays and ends up being the rock for this little family.
Fantastic book!
There’s one part of the book I found so surprising and refreshing because this book is very “women’s lib.” Most of the men are despicable characters and do despicable things to Elizabeth (Calvin, Walter Pine, and Wakely are wonderful men, however.) I would have expected a firm pro-abortion stance but there is one part of the book where the dog, Six Thirty, is communicating with the baby growing inside of Elizabeth, and the baby is communicating back – “the creature extended a small fist, which he found thrilling; other times he heard singing.” I really like how she described the interplay between the dog and the fetus. I found this hopeful and refreshing.
There is something I’m unsure of and that’s the vehemence of Elizabeth’s unbelief in God, and then later, Avery Park’s firm unbelief in God, and even Wakely, the pastor’s, unbelief in God. They blame God for the evil in the world, and Elizabeth thinks science is the real answer. Her research centers on abiogenesis, life created out of unlife, or something like that.
But then there’s Harriet, who does believe in God, and is the real hero of this book. So I just don’t know.
But we will all find out, in the end, how much God loves us, and how for some strange reason, He is allowing Satan to wreak much havoc, for now, but in the end, he will make all things new, right, beautiful, and he cares for and treasures each and every one of us. He also took upon himself all the evils of Satan and because of Him, we don’t ever have to be separated from God, we can live with him in bliss forever. And He is the one who created all the science that we puny humans spend lifetimes trying to figure out. And one day, Jesus will return and crush evil forever. Amen.