After a few other books, I finally decided to read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Heads-up: there might be a minor spoiler about the TV series below.
I have mixed feelings, though I found it rather good overall.
On the one hand, it's quite well written, and there are great sad, profound, and funny moments. I like that the story is mainly told from the main protagonist but also told from other perspectives, which gives the author opportunities to expose misunderstandings due to prejudices, shyness, or misinformation. The characters are relatively well developed and coherent throughout the book, too, and it's easy to get attached to some of them and feel for their misfortunes - but more on that later. They have their strong points but also their blind spots, which makes them real enough, except a few antagonists who are just bad no matter how you look at them.
On the other hand, there are glaring passages that feel too much like a 101 lecture on patriarchism or similar issues and which stick out like a sore thumb. By comparison, though, the racial aspect isn't as developped as in the series, where they invented the whole story about Harriet's fight to preserve the neighboorhood (she's fighting for something else entirely in the book). I also had the same feeling as when I watched the series that the suffering, unfairness, and injustices inflicted upon the main protagonist and a few others were repeatedly carried to excess, which makes the book too obviously purposed to denounce the issues in gender equality and greed in that period - and still today. The problem is really in the dosage, which is too bad in a story about chemists. Worst, it made me think that the author, prompted to write this book after her own misfortune, has overdone it to tap into that sensitive topic and gain more audience on one side rather than rallying the other side, which is a shame since we all know covalent bonds are stronger (sorry, couldn't help it).
Finally, also like the series, I was a little concerned about the apparent aimlessness of the story at a certain point. In my interpretation, the real main plot appears at the very end, which gives an explanation to some mysteries and a late sense of purpose, but it feels badly stitched in some areas, as if the exaggerations had torn the fabric of the story somewhat.
Thankfully, the good parts overweigh the bad ones, so I'd still recommend reading it if you're not too regarding about those little issues and, of course, if 'woke' isn't a slang word you'd normally use pejoratively rather than for its true meaning.
