I will not reveal any of the details of the extremely complex plot which is nevertheless easy to follow and beautifully and completely integrated with no loose ends but lots of surprises. There are strong themes of feminism and the deeply embedded cultural gender inequality of the era that the author, with Elizabeth as her mouthpiece, points out in many everyday situations and conversations, and some episodes of overt violence against women. Men appropriate women’s research findings as their discoveries and are anxious to keep women in the home, cooking and producing babies. The hypocrisy of the clergy and society at large is another recurring theme of the declared atheist Elizabeth. One clergyman muses in private that “The problem with being a minister was how many times a day he had to lie.”
I mentioned that this was a quirky story, but that hardly explains it; perhaps bizarre would be a better word for some of the happenings. Many are highly unrealistic bordering on magic but all are made to somehow seem possible, and the connections between some characters are tenuous at best. But what will make you forget the improbabilities is the pauses you will need to laugh at the hilarious descriptions. The unfortunate title may turn some potential readers away but you do not need any but the most basic knowledge of chemistry to love this tale.
There are so many great quotes that is difficult to choose only a few:
“a horrible man broke into the house and said if I didn’t give him all our money, he’d take the baby. I hadn’t slept or showered in four days, hadn’t combed my hair for at least a week, hadn’t sat down in I don’t know how long. So I said, ‘You want the baby? Here.’ ” She shifted Madeline to the other arm. “Never seen a grown man run so fast.”
“She supposed it took a certain type of skill to be able to say exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. Maybe that was a prerequisite for a position in Personnel.”
“Like most stupid people, Mr. Sloane wasn’t smart enough to know just how stupid he actually was.”
A few nit-picky errors: Sidewalks are made of concrete, not cement. Blood pressure and pulses are reflected in arteries, not veins but here veins pulse and “her blood pressure skipped through her veins like an unsecured fire hose.”
This is a fun read combining a complex imaginative plot, laugh-out-loud hilarity, and many surprisingly serious unusual observations about human interactions, life and death.
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A close friend suggested that I was reading too much heavy nonfiction lately and recommended this quirky recently published debut novel, as did my wife. Set largely in fictional Common, California in the fifties and sixties, the central character is Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant and beautiful but very eccentric research chemist, trained at elite British and American universities, and for four years, a celebrity TV cooking show host. Her live-in star partner, Calvin Evans who was her research rival before hormonal chemistry bonded them together, their illegitimate precocious misfit daughter Mad, and their unrealistically intelligent mongrel dog named Six-Thirty complete the family.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks, Sheila and Floyd.
The Passionate Reader 