"Courage is the root of change — and change is what we're chemically designed to do."
— Elizabeth Zott
Lessons in Chemistry is a 2022 American historical fiction novel and the debut work of Bonnie Garmus. Set in 1960s California, it follows talented chemist and single mother Elizabeth Zott, who, after hitting a glass ceiling at the research institute she works at, eventually utilizes her chemistry knowledge to become the famous host of the cooking show Supper at Six.
The novel was adapted into a 2023 miniseries by Apple TV+, starring Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott.
Tropes:
- The '60s: The opening lines of the novel immediately establish it as set in early 1960s America:Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbelt-less cars without giving it a second thought; back before anyone knew there'd even be a sixties movement, much less one that its participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling; back when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were starting to think fresh and believe everything was possible, the thirty-year-old mother of Madeline Zott rose before dawn every morning and felt certain of just one thing: her life was over.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Madeline is humming Bach concertos and reading Dickens at the age of kindergarten, but she takes care not to stick out too much. She even takes it upon herself to dig up her late father's family history.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Elizabeth Zott's aspirations to become a chemist in midcentury America are repeatedly held up by patriarchal roadblocks — male colleagues assume she's the secretary at best or assault her at worst.
- Ditzy Genius: Elizabeth wonders if Calvin is one of those people who is incredibly knowledgable in one field but not so much in others after he, a gifted and brilliant chemist, innocently asks why anyone would ever discriminate on the basis of someone's gender.
- Rape as Backstory: Elizabeth's argument with Miss Frask comes to a screeching halt when it turns out that both of them have been sexually assaulted by their thesis advisors.
- Show Within a Show: Supper at Six, a beloved Cooking Show that Elizabeth hosts.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Calvin dies in an accident; Elizabeth gives birth to their daughter afterwards and raises little Madeline as a single mom.
- Spock Speak: Elizabeth's dry, scientific demeanor are utilized to make her cooking show Supper at Six unique — she is deadpan in her delivery and insists on referring to ingredients by their chemical names, e.g. "sodium chloride" instead of salt.
