Lessons in Chemistry
I picked up this book upon recommendations from the New York Times. It took me quite a bit to read through and i think I finished mostly because the audiobook narrator made it quite engaging. The book itself is basically a comic book. If you’ve ever read comics like Spy X Family or anything by Ian Fleming, this is basically in the same genre of “yah, hold your disbelief right there” type of books.
It might seem strange to compare Spy x Family to this, but mostly because of the kid and the dog. =) Both these books have both kids and dogs that are way more intelligent than possible (the dog knows more than 1000 words and can help out credibly in a chemistry lab), the kid is more mature than most dali lamas, and the single mom is incredibly competent. She’s a great rower after having tried it a few times, she’s a great chemist, a great cook, and she apparently can hold the attention of housewives everywhere by teaching chemistry in the guise of cooking. She’s also in the 1960s, so she gets no attention other than that she’s attractive, no credit (in fact her work gets stolen by male coworkers), and she’s surrounded by men who are all vile and evil, or loving and dead, or kind and mostly helpless.
I guess there’s the obgyn, who is presumably good at what he does for his profession and also a good rower, but for plot reasons he hardly shows up in the book.
If you read the book like its a comic book and you don’t demand too much of your brain while reading, you might enjoy the book. I know I didn’t take the book seriously while i’m reading, and while there are adult things that happen in the book, no one would say that transformers or marvel comics are adult because characters in them die and that they are at war.
Yes, the author has an agenda, and yes, she writes entertainingly about it. Treat it as a comic book like you would any other comic book (or star wars, if you must), and you’ll enjoy it. =)
I recommend the book if you can read it like that. Otherwise, you’d be incline to complain overly much and no one likes that (have you seen the folks who try to discredit star wars? yah..not pretty).