What’s Up, Everyone?
I apologize for not having this review up on Sourdough’s publication day (September 7th) like I had hoped. I have been testing out a couple of new filming styles and the one that I tried to use to film my Sourdough review turned out terribly. Therefore, I am scrapping that footage and writing a review for you today.
A couple of years ago I read Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan and absolutely adored it. I loved the way that it combined books and technology. I also loved the characters and the way that the plot progressed. Ever since I have been anxiously awaiting another Robin Sloan book. So when I saw that Sourdough was finally available for request, I jumped on my chance to review it for you all. Therefore, a big thank you is in order to SFG Publishing and Robin Sloan for allowing me to have an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
The general premise of Sourdough is that our main character, Lois Clary, is a programmer for a high tech company called General Dexterity, who is working to implement robotic arms into the workforce. Lois gets this job right out of college and moves to San Francisco to pursue it. And yet, Lois quickly discovers that while the work she is doing is interesting, it is an all consuming force in her life. The only thing that is able to cure her from feeling totally consumed by her work is the food of a restaurant called Clement Street Soup and Sourdough, which is run by two brothers who cook with the flavors of their culture, the Mazg. It comes to pass that these two brothers end up having to leave the country and they bestow their Sourdough starter to Lois to take care of (with a whole trunk of things for her to start learning to bake with). This is the start of Lois’s new life, one consumed with teaching the V3 arm that General Dexterity has been working on to bake with the starter, as well as Lois’s mission to keep the starter alive.
The premise of Sourdough leads me to one of the best parts of the book; the way that Robin Sloan combines food and technology. Throughout the book, the reader gets introduced to different, off the wall ways of thinking about food and eating. Some people around Lois prefer to eat a food substitute called Slurpy, that has all of the nutrients a person could need for a meal. Slurpy, while nutritious, doesn’t provide the same enjoyment for Lois that fresh baked Sourdough does. The two camps, Slurpy vs Sourdough (or fine dining in general) are compared throughout the book in an effort to answer the question, “which is better?” Ultimately, it is decided that advancements in the technology of food can be appreciated by the same people that love good, old fashioned sourdough and fine dining culture. In this way, I believe that Robin Sloan presented a very interesting, food related argument that made me think as I read. It was also cool because the presence of the question, “which is better?” allowed the book to explore different foods from both sides of the argument. The exploration of new advancements in technologically advanced food processing and consumption was my favorite part of this book by far.
The second part of this book that I liked was a little group of ladies named Lois, called the Lois Club. Apparently, this is an actual thing! Look it up! There is a whole video on Youtube of a bunch of women named Lois singing the official Lois Club theme song. It is adorkable. Anywho, because Baker Lois doesn’t get out of work that often, she doesn’t have many people in San Fran that she knows. To combat her loneliness Lois attends this club that Her grandmother started where anyone named Lois can bond with other women named Lois. The Lois’s that we meet at the Lois club provide a significant amount of lovable, adorableness to the story that makes me want to be named Lois just so that I can attend one of the Lois Club’s meetings.
Along the same lines, I enjoyed the two brother’s that were featured in the story and their bakery. They are a hoot in the beginning of the book and pop back in every once in awhile to check up on Lois and the starter. Just like the Lois’s, they were great side characters and provided a lot of comedic relief to the overall story.
It is at this point that I would like to mention that I was really excited for this book. Like, REALLY excited for this book. I had very high expectations of it. I loved the premise, I love food and I love tech. I really was on this book’s side from the very beginning.
In spite of my hopes, I slowly began to realize as I was reading Sourdough that I was not loving this book. Which made me sad. Then I finished the book and I didn’t love it, which made me even sadder. Even though there isn’t a whole lot that I can say without spoiling the events of the book, I am going to try very hard to explain the points that I think lead to my disappointment.
Firstly, I didn’t feel an emotional attachment to the characters (other than the Lois’s and the two brothers). I really didn’t find Lois, our main character, compelling. She was incredibly bland, even though she was supposed to be a genius who was also close to my age. Maybe it was the writing style of Sourdough, but I connected with the characters in Mr. Penumbra’s, so I don’t know how much of my perception of Lois I can blame on the writing style. I also didn’t connect to the people that Lois meets over the course of the novel. They were interesting and I wanted to learn more about the work that they were doing. However, I can’t say that I was invested in any of them or that I had an emotional connection to them. Additionally, the Lois’s and the brothers, which were the characters that I connected with the most over the course of the book, really aren’t present for that much of the story. The brothers are present for a little bit at the beginning, but they quickly become a way for Sloan to give Lois information on the starter and the culture of the Mazg. In the end, I just wanted more in terms of character development. Which leads me to my next point….
Nothing happens in this book until it does. That last sentence may not make any sense unless you read the book, but somehow Sourdough was incredibly slow paced until it isn’t. You would think that a story about technology, food, and culture would be interesting, right? Yes, and to a certain extent, it was. I was interested in learning about the developments that Lois was making at General Dexterity and in her future endeavors. Even so, beyond the generally interesting nature of the science and ways of cooking that are explored in this book, it is very, very dry. Until the end. In the end, Sourdough pulls a full Rumor Weed from Veggie Tales meets Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. The book is totally aware of the giant leaps that it is making and even goes as far as to have Lois reference Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Which leads me to my last point.
This book is a magical realism/science fiction book. Yep. Didn’t see that one coming did ya? Okay, maybe you did because you read the tags on Goodreads. Regardless, I was not expecting this to have magical realism or science fiction in it and man, does it hit you hard with the magical realism and science fiction elements of the story. Leaps are made in logic that are just weird. I am totally on board with weird. Good weird is often great! This was just strange. Even though there was a lot of science behind what was happening, I couldn’t get behind how ridiculous the events of the book were. There is a general sense of magical/science fiction style goings on from the sourdough itself that subtly weaves its way through the first 97% of this book. It is like the science fiction side of this book was just sitting in a bowl, popping up every once in awhile to remind you that sourdough wasn’t what it seemed and then, BAM! At the end, this book smacks you upside the face with children’s bedtime story levels of silliness. I think that it was a combination of the generally dry nature of the first 97% of Sourdough, combined with the pretty out of left field lunacy of the last 3% of Sourdough that made my overall enjoyment of the novel decrease. There is also a “mystery” (I am using this word very lightly) integrated into the premise of Sourdough and not only was it a sub-sub plot, but the reveal wasn’t shocking and didn’t really give me a sense of gratification.
Ultimately, was Sourdough my favorite? No. Am I going to rave about Sourdough and send you running to your local bookstore to pick it up? Probably not. Am I probably going to read another Robin Sloan book if he writes another one? Yes. I genuinely like Robin Sloan as an author and I know that we can write a book that I can fall in love with (see example: Mr. Penumbra’s). I just didn’t end up loving Sourdough as much as I loved his previous book and that’s OK. Maybe I will have better luck with the next thing that he writes (fingers crossed).
Again, thank you to SFG Publishing, Netgalley and Robin Sloan for allowing me to read an ARC of Sourdough in exchange for an honest review.
Overall:
2.5 stars out of 5
65% out of 100%
-Jaime