At the beginning of this story, I had a hard time warming up to Elizabeth Zott, a chemist who struggles for recognition as more than “a woman.” After experiencing a sexual assault in an academic setting, many professionals continue to see her as a sex object throughout the book. The setting is the 1950s, and although I knew the fictional Elizabeth would have struggled with real-world issues and stereotypes of the day, I thought the author over-dramatized her journey to live as a scientist. Although I never read it as realistic fiction, I became more interested in the book as the plot developed. I realized that the author used a humorous flair when illustrating the preposterous nature of some of the discrimination Elizabeth experienced. Even the dog, though personified a bit much, realized that the characters in Elizabeth’s life were quite obtuse when dealing with an intelligent female scientist.
A woman’s life as a professional is not always easy, and some of the barriers Elizabeth faced still exist in the modern world. Even so, I thought the story was repetitive, and presenting the story as an “Elizabeth vs. everybody else” detracted from my interest. More points of view would have made the plot more interesting. The supporting characters were flat, and I felt they could have had better-developed personas. For example, Calvin Evans, the chemist who befriended and respected Elizabeth, starts with preconceived negative assumptions about women in the workplace and is not a workplace champion for Elizabeth. Frask, another female worker who was also the victim of sexual harassment, and Harriet, Elizabeth’s neighbor, suffering from abuse in her marriage, are one-dimensional characters whose development was incidental to the plot. The teacher and bishop were incompetent and gained no sympathy from me. Even Mad, Elizabeth’s precocious child, didn’t seem realistic. Blakely, the minister, though determined to play a positive role in Mad’s life, was just uninteresting.
Overall, I am glad I read the book since it continues to be acclaimed by reputable reviewers. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t one of my favorites.
