"Sourdough" by Robin Sloan

I read this one at the recommendation of a friend, not realizing I had read Sloan's other novel, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, ten years ago (rereading that review, it seems like Sloan has stuck with the same themes).

Sourdough is a little simple, and then... it's bafflingly weird. The first part of the novel passes breezily enough. Lois is an overworked tech programmer in San Francisco, but when the owners of her beloved takeout place are forced to leave the U.S.--and leave her with their special sourdough starter--Lois starts baking. She's even more busy than before, but suddenly, she's no longer depressed, tired, or even run-down looking. Sourdough has saved her! Already the novel is in murky territory. Why does baking renew and rejuvenate her? Certainly the reader understands the classic story of a run-down office-worker liberated by "real work," but Lois' office job is substantive, and she does produce tangible results. She gets praise for her bread from colleagues and acquaintances, but she has no real interest in making friendships, so it doesn't seem like that's the reason for her transformation. Given the end of the book, it could be we're supposed to believe there's "magic" in the bread that's causing the change, but if that's so then the book isn't really about a person growing (the point of all books?).

Soon after, Lois is recruited to join an underground (literally) farmer's market of sorts that's developing new products at the intersection of technology and food. To qualify, she uses one of her company's robot arms to mix the batter and sometimes crack eggs and... why? I have to believe stand mixers are already pretty good at mixing, and I suppose not having to hand crack eggs saves some time, but it hardly seems revolutionary. Lois also quits her high-paying, high-status job for which she's trained her whole life with nary a shudder (I did the math and there's NO WAY she can possibly make enough money to subsist in San Francisco doing this).

I'm not going to go into the ending which comes out of left field and makes almost no sense. We end on a note of personal growth and relationships that doesn't feel earned given what came before. 

This is a lot of criticism for an easy, pleasant-enough read, and I honestly did like some of the insight into sourdough bread and food history. I agree with Sloan that there's fascinating stuff about how tech and food might come together, but I'm not sure this book did it justice. Beo--the shop owner who gives Lois the sourdough starter--feels like he would have been a far more interesting character than Lois. Still, it was a book with too many holes and leaps to work for me.