Metro, May 22
Elizabeth Zott is a scientist, single mother… and surprise star of an unconventional daytime cookery show. She doesn’t just tell the housewives of 1960s America how to make a casserole. She tells them to be women, to be revolutionary. “Cooking is chemistry,” she pronounces. “Chemistry is life. Your ability to change everything — including yourself — starts here.”
The brilliant centrifugal force of Bonnie Garmus’s debut Lessons In Chemistry, Zott is the kind of character whose triumphs are punch-the-air stuff, whose personal tragedies provide a compelling, compassionate narrative force.
The razor sharp message of equality is laced with logic and humour – and there’s a lovely, whimsical magic, too, when Zott teaches her stray dog to understand words. How Apple TV+ will deal with the dog in their adaptation is anyone’s guess. But all the ingredients are here for a massive hit.
