Review: Chemistry by Weike Wang
I have never read a book like this book. It is absolutely enthralling.
This book follows a PhD candidate studying chemistry. When her boyfriend proposes to her, she begins a process of evaluating her life and trying to determine what she wants from the future and why things need to change. The book is part frenetic unraveling, part dissection of her life.
I recently realized how much I love an unnamed narrator and was delighted to read this book as the first since I realized this about my reading taste. This book is very stream of consciousness; we get so deep into this character's thought process and her history, and the way she thinks about her own life and experiences that it was really interesting to have such an incredibly clear picture but not know her name. This choice could have been to further emphasize the way the main character had separated herself from her own emotions, to add to the confusion and indecision of the novel, or just to keep this one detail private. Whatever the reason, I found it very compelling.
This book spends a lot of its time focusing on the relationship the narrator has with her boyfriend, Eric, and her parents. Starting with Eric. His proposal is what kind of tips the narrator over the edge into a spiral of questioning every aspect of her life. This really has a wonderful tension between wondering if it is a post-mortem analysis of their relationship or if the story is headed towards a more functional relationship. I was riveted. I think this relationship is really well done in the book.
Her relationship with her parents is fascinating. In addition to Eric, Joy, her mother, is one of the few named characters in the story. These two characters being named really focused the relationships the narrator had with both characters as central to how she now thought about her life. I really liked how the reader experienced the narrator's relationship with her parents. In the beginning, we get a slightly hostile sort of detached view of her parent's relationship with her. We hear negative aspects of their relationship in a way that is pretty clear that no pushback will be tolerated. As the story goes on, these relationships become more and more layered, going through two narrative tone shifts.
I think if you have a no-contact relationship with your parents, this might not be the book for you (same with if you are triggered by toxic eating patterns), but I could be wrong. Mostly the relationship with her parents was just so incredible. I loved the way this narrative really lets you see the shock waves her parents sent through her life, then slowly zooms in on the events that continue to echo in her life. It is truly masterful. I was really moved by the combination of love and protectiveness and resentment and admiration and frustration. It is really explored so incredibly well.
This book also almost perfectly lays out why I might not even be capable of having a long-term relationship.
I loved the writing style of this book. As mentioned before, it is a little stream of consciousness. We get short snippets of thought or interaction. The narrator jumps around between feeling and fact and science anecdote. All these asides come together to illustrate what her brain is processing and how. To show the reader how her thoughts are producing her action or inaction.
I listened to the audiobook of this novel, which is really excellent, but I am excited to reread so I can highlight and annotate this book. It is incredibly thought-provoking. It also has prose that is capable of both making you laugh and of punching you in the gut. It is so incredibly impressive.
I loved this book. I am so glad a TikTok about it ended up on my fyp. I am going to be thinking about this book for a very long time.
I gave this book five stars.
