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lifeinpoetry's review
Honestly, this was a mess racially, I'd even go so far as calling certain parts of it racist.
For example, during the scene where Sajé introduces her husband's doctor and notes her race the dread started, based on what I'd read so far. Then she continues to refer the doctor as the 'Chinese opthamologist.' Speculates with her friend if the doctor's being Chinese is why she's 'blunt' and why the doctor mistakes the author and her friend as mother and daughter. Speculates on whether it's 'cultural.' Speculates on whether she's harder on the doctor because she's a 'woman or an immigrant.' Speculates on whether she finds the doctor's personality 'unlikable.' She seems uncertain whether she's harder on the doctor for being a woman or for her personality (which, of course, she's been tying to her race).
DNF at 70-ish percent
For example, during the scene where Sajé introduces her husband's doctor and notes her race the dread started, based on what I'd read so far. Then she continues to refer the doctor as the 'Chinese opthamologist.' Speculates with her friend if the doctor's being Chinese is why she's 'blunt' and why the doctor mistakes the author and her friend as mother and daughter. Speculates on whether it's 'cultural.' Speculates on whether she's harder on the doctor because she's a 'woman or an immigrant.' Speculates on whether she finds the doctor's personality 'unlikable.' She seems uncertain whether she's harder on the doctor for being a woman or for her personality (which, of course, she's been tying to her race).
DNF at 70-ish percent
andforgotten's review
There are so many interesting thoughts and concepts in Terroir, and Sajé is surely a fascinating woman, but reading these essays felt like chasing crumbs on a carpet or trying to follow stars in the night sky — too many interesting thoughts but not enough cohesion across the book, no real thread to follow, jumping around rather wildly. It reads a bit like scattered jounalling, notes not yet crafted into a coherent whole, and perhaps the long gestation time of the collection contributed to that effect. As a result, I felt rather let down; I wanted to like it more than I did.
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