Sexism at work made Bonnie Garmus start writing. It sold 7 million copies

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Bonnie Garmus. The American writer, 67, is the author of Lessons in Chemistry. The bestselling, multi-award-winning novel sold almost 7 million copies in 42 territories and was adapted into an Apple TV+ show.

Bonnie Garmus: “I hear from people all over the world who say, ‘You know what? I read your book, I quit my job and I went back to school.’ ”Credit: Getty Images

RELIGION

Religion – especially the Catholic Church – is prominent in your novel. Do you have a personal history with the church? I think the whole world has a personal history with the Catholic Church. I wasn’t trying to attack it specifically: I was trying to expose the hypocrisy of religion across the board.

Did you grow up with religion? Yes, I was raised Presbyterian. My parents – especially my mother – were very religious, but it just didn’t take with me. As I grew older, I started to investigate other kinds of beliefs. What I settled on was humanism. The only requirement is to be human and the foundation is belief in community, working together and self-responsibility. For me, that made a lot more sense.

Did you have to, essentially, “come out” to your parents as non-religious? [Laughs] I had to come out to my sisters and say, “I don’t believe any of this.” They couldn’t believe it. They said, “Well, you can’t tell anybody!”

In your novel, Elizabeth says of religion, “I think it lets us off the hook. I think it teaches us that nothing is really our fault.” Is that what you think, too? Mass shootings are very common in the US now. And people say, “Well, just pray.” That’s letting ourselves off the hook: we actually have to take the guns away. Every other country in the world can do this but, for some reason, the US relies on God to answer our prayers, to help us not be ourselves, to stop us. That’s not reasonable. It’s also not adult.

Prior to Lessons in Chemistry, publishers rejected your fiction multiple times. How did you not lose faith in yourself? It was really hard. I’ve been a copywriter and creative director, and you get used to being rejected. But when it’s your own work, you take those rejections more personally. I couldn’t get anyone to read my last manuscript. One publisher wrote back to me the very next day and said, “I love the voice, but your book is 700 pages long; no one’s ever going to publish it.” She was right. Do your research.

Most people would shrivel into a ball and never think about writing again. What’s different about you? I grieved for about a year. Then you realise, “I made a mistake. Am I really going to give up on myself?” I was a little afraid, to be honest. But there’s a lot of rejection in life. It’s not a sign of failure: it’s a sign of growth. That’s what the scientists always say.

MONEY

Your parents were scientists. Growing up, was there enough money? No. We were a solidly middle-class family, but we rarely ate out: my mum made all the meals. There were four girls. We all went to public school. We were a really average family and money was tight. Our mother made everything we wore, including my father’s suits and her own clothes.

How did you want to earn money as an adult? When I was little, I wanted to be a novelist, but my parents said, “No, they don’t make any money!” They wanted me to go into journalism. I was afraid I’d be a very bad journalist: I was very shy; I had a terrible stutter; I didn’t like to ask people questions. Writing a story was much more fun.

You published your debut novel in your 60s. What do you say when people ask, “What took you so long?” It’s so funny. When I’m in front of an audience and there are a lot of women there, I’ll say, “Because – I don’t know! – I was working full time and I had two kids!” And you can see all these heads going like this: [nodding along] I know, I know … I actually wrote my first novel at age 12. As I got older, I realised that the only way I was going to get paid to write was as a copywriter. Lessons in Chemistry took me five years to write in the cracks of the day.

Is it true you wrote the novel during work hours while you were angry with your employer? All women go through sexist episodes at work. I was really mad one day and that spurred me on. A man had stolen my ideas so, instead of working on what I was supposed to be doing, I wrote the first chapter of Lessons in Chemistry. That man realises he made a mistake. Between the two of us, I think I came out ahead.

DEATH

If you were to die today, what would you regret not having done? Finishing the next book.

And what would you be happy that you have done? To know that Lessons in Chemistry actually changed people’s lives. I get these letters, DMs and emails from people all over the world who say, “You know what? I read your book, I quit my job and I went back to school.” Three or four people are in medical school and they’re in their 50s! One young woman – child of a drug addict, never went to college – wrote to me and said, “I’ve always been told I’m worthless. I read your book and I don’t think I am worthless.” Long story short: she’s on a full ride now getting her law degree.

What’s going on your headstone? It’s something for other writers: “Write with confidence.” It’s very easy as a writer to lose your confidence and go, “Oh, I wonder what they’ll think.” It doesn’t matter. Write with confidence. That’s the big secret.

Bonnie Garmus will appear at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre (May 21), Brisbane Writers Festival (May 23-24) and Sydney Writers’ Festival (May 25-26).

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