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Creation Lake: A Novel
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Original price was: $29.99.$14.99Current price is: $14.99.
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*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE*
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Time, LitHub, The Millions, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more!
“At last I get to say how deeply, madly, irrecoverably I loved Creation Lake…it was all stylish and cool, and then somehow the book struck a blow to my heart.” —Louise Erdrich, Kirkus
From Rachel Kushner, a Booker Prize finalist, two-time National Book Award finalist, and “one of the most gifted authors of her generation” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France—a propulsive page-turner of glittering insights and dark humor.
Creation Lake is a novel about a secret agent, a thirty-four-year-old American woman of ruthless tactics, bold opinions, and clean beauty, who is sent to do dirty work in France.
“Sadie Smith” is how the narrator introduces herself to her lover, to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to the reader.
Sadie has met her love, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian, by “cold bump”—making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone Sadie targets, Lucien is useful to her and used by her. Sadie operates by strategy and dissimulation, based on what her “contacts”—shadowy figures in business and government—instruct. First, these contacts want her to incite provocation. Then they want more.
In this region of centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who communicates only by email. Bruno believes that the path to emancipation from what ails modern life is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past.
Just as Sadie is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story.
Written in short, vaulting sections, Rachel Kushner’s rendition of “noir” is taut and dazzling. Creation Lake is Kushner’s finest achievement yet as a novelist, a work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure.
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Categories: Test Preparation
Product name:
Creation Lake: A Novel
Price:
Original price was: $29.99.$14.99Current price is: $14.99.
kathleen g –
I don’t know what I can add to the multitude of reviews of this latest from a revered author. Kushner has a knack for writing dense, albeit immersive, prose that mixes philosophy with plot. This moves slowly (sometimes it doesn’t move at all) and the reader will spend a lot of time in Sadie and Bruno’s heads. Oddly, the digressions into the Neanderthals were among the most engaging sections of the novel. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Kushner’s fans and those who enjoy literary fiction will be pleased.
StroopWafels –
Sadie is an American spy with a determined yet detached demeanor. Her assignment is to get close to a group of environmental activists in France to see what they are planning (or maybe to nudge them to take action)…
I thoroughly enjoyed Sadie’s introspection, humor, and narration of events. I was not as enamored with Bruno’s emails as Sadie was but loved how they were woven into the story. Overall, this was a captivating and entertaining read.
Thank you very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read a copy.
Nicole Del Sesto –
I was not looking forward to this, so I was moderately surprised I made it through and didn’t hate it. I’m not a fan of Kushner and I don’t understand the Booker prize’s fascination with her.
This was an interesting concept – I enjoyed the parts of the story which existed. The first 20% of the book read like the author’s research notes. So boring. Then as we went along it was a tiny bit of story with a lot of tedious philosophical musings. There wasn’t a likeable character in the bunch – so when somebody you hate starts meandering, it grinds. This book took way longer to read than necessary. We don’t (and shouldn’t) talk about Bruno. Ugh. The worst of the lot.
It’s a bit of a departure of “type” from some of the others on the 2024 Booker list, which was refreshing. It was creative, and I laughed twice – I kept track. I wouldn’t recommend it though.
Mary Lins –
I immediately became enthralled by the first-person protagonist in “Creation Lake”, by Rachel Kushner. Her alias is “Sadie Smith”; she’s ruthless, wry, sardonic, full of hubris, and she’s a deliciously unreliable narrator: my favorite kind!
She is an American, a former spy for a federal agency now working in the UK for “private interests” (read: a mercenary). She has no qualms about her assignment to infiltrate and manipulate an anarchist commune in rural France devoted to the collapse of Capitalism, called Le Moulin.
As she plots and plans to trap Le Moulin into a violent protest over rural/farmer’s water rights, she surreptitiously reads emails sent to the collective by a mysterious former radical named Bruno, who has abandoned his anarchist stance and is now preaching non-violence. Bruno is living outside of civilization (in caves) and is advising Le Moulin, by way of teaching them about anthropology and astrology: emphasis on the Neanderthals and Polaris. What does it mean to detach from the future and live in the now? Eventually, Sadie must confront the big existential questions Bruno evinces.
Are Bruno’s missives an indication of madness or genius? How will Sadie’s machinations play out? Will it turn out to be a trap for Le Moulin or for Sadie? I couldn’t wait to find out!
Rachel Kushner is a fabulous writer, as fans of “The Mars Room” already know. I predict this unique “spy thriller” with its compelling plot and sui generis narrator will entertain and delight readers of both popular and literary fiction.
Karebear –
Not at all what I was expecting. Describing it as a spy thriller is to me an inaccuracy. Sadie Smith, the spy-for-hire’s alias, narrates the story and is in the midst of a sort of spiritual awakening. She’s in the Guyenne region of France where she has infiltrated Le Moulin, a group of subversive individuals trying to stop a planned megabasin project for industrial farming. She has hacked into the group’s emails where she finds Bruno a sort of mentor/advisor who philosophizes about a range of subjects from Neanderthals to astronomy. Sadie is a bold, detached individual whose sole aim is to do the job she was hired for and then disappear. There’s a large assortment of characters with the barest of development. Sadie and Bruno are the main characters and are the ones we get to know the best in this story. It is well written and has been nominated for a prestigious literary award and has received lots of praise. While I enjoyed parts of it, I found other parts to be a little tedious and drawn out. 3.75 stars