We had the first meeting of the school year of the library’s Book Club at the Brew Pub on September 26th.  Good food and drinks were had by all, but more importantly, a great discussion about a debut novel by Weike Wang: Chemistry.

Chemistry follows our  main character as she is trying to finish up her PhD in chemistry.  Eventually, she has a nervous breakdown and has to reevaluate her career and life path.  She seems like she has the world at her fingertips, yet she can’t quite make it all work.  As we discussed this novel, here are some questions that were brought up:

  1.  Why is Eric the only one with a name?  Everyone else only has a title (the best friend, lab mate, mother, father, the dog).  We never even get to know the main character’s name.  Does this demonstrate Eric’s importance in her life?  He is not defined by her relationship with him, while everyone else is.  Or, does it show the opposite –  is she hesitant to commit and attempts to keep him at arms length, giving him his own name to separate herself from their relationship?
  2. Why can’t she commit to Eric?  Most thought that her treatment of Eric was pretty abysmal.  He seems to adore her, takes care of her (hands her toothbrush to her with toothpaste already applied, drapes a towel around her neck when she is about to shower, makes sure she eats, etc.) and yet she can’t commit.  Is that because she really doesn’t love him?  Many would say yes.  But on the flip side, her aversion to commitment could be a product of her upbringing.  Her parent’s dysfunctional marriage was most likely not the best advertisement for long term love.  Her feelings are also tied up into her success as a chemist.  If she had succeeded in obtaining her PhD, would her commitment to Eric have been different in the end?
  3. How does she express—or struggle to express—­these different aspects of her identity?  Much of her confusion seemed to stem from her inability to identify with one culture, or her inability to find common ground.  In her parent’s culture, everything she does is to bring honor to them.  She does what they ask, without question.  She was brought up to not question them, but to please them.  She talks about how she truly owes everything to her parents.  But she was brought up in a country that tells you to follow your OWN path, not necessarily the path chosen by your parents.  When she realizes that the path her parents have chosen for her is not going to work out, she feels that she has not just let herself down, but she has brought shame and humiliation upon them.  Even though she can logically see that it’s ok for her to have her own life, you can’t just walk away from your upbringing.

One of the most loved parts of the book was how well the mind of a chemist was written.  Most of us have friends in the science field, and we have all had similar conversations with them:

“The optimist sees the glass half full.  The pessimist sees the glass half empty.  The chemist sees the glass completely full, half in liquid state and half in gaseous, both of which are probably poisonous.”

“I don’t understand when I read on food packages that something is chemical-free.  I immediately take offense.  Everything is made up of chemicals.  To say that something is chemical-free is to say that inside this package is an absolute vacuum.”