Lessons in Chemistry

by Bonnie Garmus

she didn’t like the notion that systems had to be outsmarted. Why couldn’t they just be smart in the first place?

“I’ve never understood why when women marry, they’re expected to trade in their old names like used cars, losing their last and sometimes even their first—Mrs. John Adams! Mrs. Abe Lincoln!—as if their previous identities had just been twenty-odd-year placeholders before they became actual people. Mrs. Peter Dickman. It’s a life sentence.”

“Pregnancy is a normal condition. It is not disgraceful. It is how every human being starts.” “How dare you,” he said, his voice rising. “A woman telling me what pregnancy is. Who do you think you are?”

Besides, even if he knew every word in the English language, he still wouldn’t have any idea what to say. Because what does one say to someone who’s lost everything?

Because while stupid people may not know they’re stupid because they’re stupid, surely unattractive people must know they’re unattractive because of mirrors.