Read vs Listen: Lessons in Chemistry

Two timelines and a dog's point of view, neither of which the page marks any more clearly than a voice does.

Confidence 79%, which puts it in the leaning band. Bands run from close call at 50 to 64, through leaning at 65 to 79 and clear at 80 to 94, up to clear cut at 95 and above.

What this book actually is

Roughly forty-five short titled chapters, most under ten pages, running on two clocks. It opens in November 1961, drops back about a decade to January 1952, works forward from there and returns to the 1961 present later on. The movement between the two is carried by chapter headings and by dates in the text rather than by section dividers.

It is third person, and it does not stay with Elizabeth Zott. From chapter seven onward the dog, Six-Thirty, becomes one of the novel's main perspectives. He does not talk. He thinks, in the same register as the human sections, and the text keeps a running count of his working vocabulary, which reaches nearly a thousand English words. The chapter titles do a second job as commentary: 'Overreaching', '99 Percent', 'E.Z.'

The case for reading it

Two timelines and a shifting point of view are the classic argument for print, and both are genuinely present. A reader can see 'November 1961' fixed at the top of a page, keep a thumb in it and turn back. A reader can scan up a paragraph to check whose head they are in when the register changes. The chapter titles stand on the page as commentary for as long as you are in the chapter, where on audio they are announced once and gone. The recipes, if you want them, are in the separate book club kit rather than in the novel, so they are print and download material either way.

The case for listening to it

The book is a comedy of manners delivered flat, and flat has to be performed. Reviewers describe Miranda Raison's delivery as suitably no-nonsense, matching a character who prefers rationality to feeling, which is exactly the register the jokes need to land. The structure suits the ear as well: forty-five chapters averaging under ten pages, in a dry declarative style with a lot of dialogue. And the two arguments for print turn out to be narrower than they look. Both the dates and the chapter title that introduces the dog are headings, and headings get read out. What a reader keeps is the ability to see them fixed in place, not the information itself.

The audiobook in detail

Which recording you get depends on where you buy it, and this is the thing worth checking before you press play. The US Random House Audio edition, from April 2022, credits Miranda Raison for the novel plus Bonnie Garmus and Pandora Sykes for additional material, and runs 11 hours 56 minutes, about 7 hours 57 minutes at one and a half times speed. Some retailers list 11 hours 55. The UK Transworld Digital edition, released the same day, credits Raison alone and is listed at around 11.9 hours. The extra material exists only on the US recording and has no print equivalent. Raison is a British actress, known for Spooks, Warrior and Sister Boniface Mysteries.

Who should ignore this verdict

Anyone who wants the bonus material and buys in the UK, because the extra credited content is on the US recording only. Anyone comparing the novel with the Apple TV+ series, where the handling of the dog's perspective in the third episode became its own discussion and a reader can turn straight to the chapters in question. And anyone who reads two books at once, since a dual timeline you are dipping in and out of is easier to hold when you can see where you left it.

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