By Bonnie Garmus.
Although we start in the Southern California town of Commons where Elizabeth Zott is the star of a local TV cooking show, Supper at Six, her story takes us through the events that bring her to this point. Her approach to cooking, as well as life, is scientific and unusual for the typical woman of the 1950s. Her story is told by her as well as the characters we meet: her coworkers at Hastings Research Lab; the love of her life, Calvin Evans; her dog, Six-Thirty; her daughter, Madeline; her neighbor, Mrs. Sloane; and her boss at the television station, Mr. Pine.
I couldn’t help but root for Elizabeth and share her anger and frustration over the injustices she faced over and over during her personal quest for gender equality. Her battleground wasn’t the streets of New York or some other major city during the feminist movement of the 1960s. She was a woman of the 1950s, the same generation as my mom, and unique for her time. As she struggled to follow her passion (chemistry), she fought her battles in university classrooms and on the job, where her adversaries were male professors, supervisors, and coworkers who tried to enforce unwritten rules that governed the role and behavior of women.
Through Elizabeth, we get a glimpse into the challenges women faced when trying to break through the barriers erected by gender bias. And she handles them with frustration, heartbreak, delight, humor, and ultimately success.
(Published in 2022 by Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.)
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One of my favorite reads: “Lessons in Chemistry,” is an entertaining women’s fiction book by Bonnie Garmus.
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