Lessons in Chemistry Study Guide

Bonnie Garmus grew up in Seattle before attending University of California, Santa Cruz. There, she received a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and aesthetics. For much of her life, Garmus worked as a copywriter and creative director. She has also lived all over the world including Switzerland and Columbia and currently resides in London. Though a lover of literature and writing all her life, Lessons in Chemistry is Garmus’s first novel. Upon its release, Lessons in Chemistry quickly became a hit and spent many weeks on the best-seller weeks. In 2023, Lessons in Chemistry was adapted to a miniseries starring Brie Larson and Lewis Pullman.

Related Historical Events: Lessons in Chemistry is set against the backdrop of 1960s California, a period and place of significant social change, particularly concerning women’s roles in society. The 1960s was a decade marked by the Civil Rights Movement, the rise of second-wave feminism, and significant scientific advancements. Women were fighting for equality and the right to have careers and lives outside of the home, which is a central theme in Garmus’s novel. Elizabeth’s experiences reflect the gender discrimination that was pervasive during this era, where women were often relegated to supportive or background roles in professional environments, particularly in male-dominated fields like science and technology. Additionally, the 1960s saw a significant evolution in the landscape of television in the United States. This period marked a shift from the entertainment and news dichotomy of the 1950s to programming that increasingly reflected the tumultuous social and political climate. By the end of the decade, nearly all American homes had a television. As such, Elizabeth finds herself in the middle of a new media landscape that is politically charged, and she takes advantage of that opportunity.

Lessons in Chemistry is a work of feminist historical fiction, a popular subgenre in contemporary American literature. Other similar works include novels such as Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, Lauren Wilkinson’s American Spy, and Sara Donati’s Where the Light Enters. All three of these novels also feature strong female protagonists who find themselves in positions that men traditionally occupy. Like Lessons in Chemistry, they are interested in how gender roles function and how one can subvert them. These contemporary works come from a tradition of literature that examines and challenges the role of women in society. In American fiction, famous examples include Little Women, which features a female character who dreams of being a writer, and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, a novel about a woman who struggles to assert herself as an individual in society that conventionally values women only in their roles as wives and mothers. In addition to these works, Lessons in Chemistry is full of references to other novels because Madeline, Elizabeth Zott’s young daughter, is a voracious reader. In fact, Madeline’s name comes from a famous scene in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, where the protagonist eats a madeleine cookie, and its taste mentally transports him back to his childhood. Garmus also references authors that would have been popular and controversial in the 1950s, including Norman Mailer and Vladimir Nabokov. Mailer is most famous for his novel The Naked and the Dead, a World War II novel, while Nabokov is best known for his novel Lolita, about a pedophile who pursues a relationship with an adolescent girl.