LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY-Chemistry Class Should Be Such a Gas

The surprisingly delightful and deceptively insightful novel, LESSONS in CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus, was a fun read from beginning end.  Gramus has created a heroine, Elizabeth Zott, is not to be underestimated.  She is unflappable, adaptable and remarkable in every which way.   Being a woman chemist in the chauvinistic world of the1960s, Elizabeth Zott does not cow-tow to surmised norms that impose restrictions.   Zott got plenty of moxie, poise and a penchant for pursuing scientific research in the field of chemistry.   Zott is fortunate to cross wires with renown chemist Calvin Evans and after two auspicious interactions, a full on attraction and mutual love bond unite the two in happily unwedded bliss that tragically goes amiss.  Fortunately, Gramus debut novel's turbulent plot imbues Zott with characters that demonstrate the similarly dynamic and electrifying qualities she contains.  Calvin and Elizabeth's positive interactions are based on mutual love and respect which elicits problematic negativity from envious people around their periphery.   Their co-habitation outside marriage is disdained which doesn't cause an iota of chagrin for Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is a vibrant and original character we're magnetically drawn to.  So too, for her remarkable daughter, Mad, a precocious and beguiling child, their dog six-thirty with an extensible vocabulary taught by Elizabeth and their neighbor Harriet who comes to help care for both Mad and Elizabeth.  The unstable working environment becomes volatile.  After being fired from her post in the labs, Elizabeth nabs a job as a TV chef personality that surprisingly becomes a quantifiable success due in part to the osmosis of chemical properties intrinsic in cooking and the ideas of enhancing  women's self-expectations.  As Elizabeth knowingly confers, "Chemistry is change and change is the core of your belief system.  Which is good because that's what we need more of-people who refuse to accept the status quo, who aren't afraid to take on the unacceptable."  Mixed into this delectable soufflé of comedy and theology is the hypocrisy of religious configurations which are questioned with a delicate touch.  Mad, at age five, is portrayed as worldly wise informs the elder priest she befriends, who tells her religion is based on faith.  "'But you realize,' she said carefully, as if not to embarrass him further, 'that faith isn't based on religion. Right?'"  Both six-thirty and Harriett add their insights in hilariously off-handed manners which adds supporting elements to a notable mixture with positive results.  My hypothesis based on sound observations having devoured CHEMISTRY LESSONS with relish, reading it will elicit discernible increase in serotonin levels.  I need not embellish.