Terroir: Love, Out of Place

by Natasha Sajé

The word “terroir” refers to the climate and soil in which something is grown. In this essay collection, Natasha Sajé applies this idea to people and their relationships, exploring in particular how the immigrant experience has shaped her identity. As she revisits people and literature across her life, she plumbs the language through the lens of place, which becomes a powerful, grounding motif: her experiences as the child of European refugees in suburban New Jersey, taken under the wing a widowed neighbor; a winter spent waitressing in Switzerland; her marriage to a Jamaican man in Baltimore; and finally her marriage to a woman in Salt Lake City.

Sajé’s essays offer incisive commentary on nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and class. Hers are not tales of melancholy or victimization but rather stories of human understanding. Taken as a whole, the essays ask how terroir creates identity, reminding us that change is constant in our lives.

Genres: Essays, Memoir, Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2020

Reviews

[Crystal]

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

[Josefine]

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.

[Mary Amato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sajé writes with honesty and clarity about her life as a daughter, a wife, a lover, a friend, a widow, an immigrant, a worker, a foodie, a scholar, a reader, and a writer. What a luxury to spend time with her in these pages.

[Rebecca H.]

“Terroir” is a French word that refers to the whole environment in which something is grown. Natasha Sajé uses this term as the organizing principle for her collection of personal essays exploring how her identity was forged by the places the lived and the people she knew. Sajé was born in Germany but raised in the U.S. and has never felt that she belonged to any one place. Instead, she has traveled widely and sought out a variety of experiences and relationships. The essays range from hotel work in Switzerland to buying a house in Baltimore to feeling out of place in Mormon Utah. She writes about her experiences in an interracial marriage and, later, marrying a woman. The book combines fascinating personal history with challenging arguments and ideas about identity, writing, race, nationality, sexuality, and more.

https://bookriot.com/fall-2020-indie-...

[Elaine Terranova]

“Terroir.” A way of staking a claim, finding a place in the world where you can grow. Saje’s heartfelt and brilliant interconnected essays trace her journey with her family of origin from war-torn Europe to a new life in America. From the photo of her childhood self, looking up in wonder and, yes, terror from a playground ride to the future that awaits her, this is the intimate story of a self-made woman, citizen of the world, and free spirit whose loves and loyalties crossed boundaries.

[Kali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully writtten, both deeply thought and deeply felt, the book is a pleasure to read. The structure seemed more like a first person novel than a memoir in the way that it carried me along from scene to scene and discussion to discussion. Lovely.

[Mak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being gay and loving the environment has never been this cool

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many ways to be
An outsider people see.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

High aspirations ideologically but unfortunately fell short in execution.