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Elizabeth Zott is a chemist. She works in a lab at a Southern California university, surrounded by men. Most of them are not nearly as intelligent and capable as she is. But her excellence doesn’t get her far because it’s the 1950s: not exactly a great era for equality.
Calvin Evans is a brilliant and highly regarded chemist at the same university, who had dozens of job offers when he graduated from Cambridge but chose the college where they work because of the weather. He’s a rower and wanted good conditions for his early-morning rowing.
When the two meet, they fall in love with each other’s great minds. Calvin is one of the few people who appreciates Elizabeth for who she is and what she does, rather than her gender or her looks. They move in together and anticipate many years of happiness.
But an accident leaves Elizabeth on her own. Well, for about 7 or 8 months. Because then she finds herself with a baby, even though she had never planned on having children. She knows nothing about babies or raising a child. But she approaches the endeavor with the one tool she knows she can rely on: the scientific method.
While she and Calvin were together, Elizabeth had chosen to cook all their meals as her contribution to the household (her income was much less than his). She also had approached cooking with a chemist’s eye: it is a series of chemical reactions, after all. Later, when her daughter is a kindergartener, Elizabeth ends up through a chain of events becoming the star of a TV show called “Supper at Six.” Her unusual, and serious, approach to cooking (and teaching others the hows and whys) makes her a hit with women all over. Elizabeth doesn’t just craft healthy meals from scratch (with ingredients such as sodium chloride and acetic acid). She inspires women and encourages them to follow their dreams: to defy conventions, to show men they are capable.
It’s easy to see why this book has been so popular (I was on my library’s Kindle waiting list for probably 6 to 8 weeks): it’s smart and dryly witty. It sports passages crafted with such care, insight and truth that I had to read them out loud to someone (my grown oldest daughter, mostly). It’s a bittersweet romance and a story of family; it explores important social issues.
In this MeToo era, when women are still voicing the horrific, degrading ways they have been treated by men (and justice too often isn’t being served), the novel is sobering. One, because it was worse for women 60 and more years ago; two, because after all those decades, so many of these vile acts are still taking place.
I loved Elizabeth: her straightforward, scientific approach to everything in life. I loved her and Calvin’s sweet and unusual love story. I loved their precocious little girl and the good people who come into their lives. My only complaint is with the sexual assaults and near-assaults. I know the fact that they occur is crucial to the story, and the scenes are not long or detailed, but they are still jarring. (Which is the intent, I’m sure, and understandably so.) I personally would have preferred the scenes or references to be more oblique.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 21 uses of strong language, about 10 instances of moderate profanity, 45 uses of mild language, and almost 80 instances of the name of Deity in vain. There are a couple of sex scenes that are quite brief, and a number of references to sex. A rape occurs, and the scene is fairly brief. In a conversation, a woman relates that she had been raped. In another scene, a man intends to rape a woman but she scares him and it does not proceed. There are several references to sexual harassment. A man is killed in an accident and there are mentions of blood.
