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 …
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.
This is a spy novel, sure, but also an exploration of the nature of our relationship with our history at every level - from the personal to that of our species. As such, it’s more introspective than tense; a reflective journey more than a pulse-pounding one, but a worthy journey nonetheless. It’s one of those novels where the protagonist is just on the edge of unlikable, and knowingly so, but in a way that is more relatable than we might care to admit. It took me a little while to get into it, but I soon found its untethered rhythm. It’s one that will stick.
Creation Lake is a spy novel, ostensibly, but it's immediately more than that. It's an examination of French politics and class, the "spy cops" scandal, and the demise of Neanderthals.
The book follows Sadie, a corporate spy who's detached to the point of sociopathy. But her wry observations are compelling. She's amoral, brutal and unsentimental, but also smart and amusing. She draws you in though you know she cannot be trusted, even as a narrator.
Rachel Kushner seems unusual in the context of contemporary American literature for her ability to weave global sociopolitical observations into narratives that switch back and further between contemporary issues and historical events.
Kushner's prose is both concise and poetic where it needs to be. She shows real skill in capturing human experiences against historical timescales. What's particularly impressive about this book is Kushner's sharp handling of both time and space. She weaves together the contemporary, …
Creation Lake is a spy novel, ostensibly, but it's immediately more than that. It's an examination of French politics and class, the "spy cops" scandal, and the demise of Neanderthals.
The book follows Sadie, a corporate spy who's detached to the point of sociopathy. But her wry observations are compelling. She's amoral, brutal and unsentimental, but also smart and amusing. She draws you in though you know she cannot be trusted, even as a narrator.
Rachel Kushner seems unusual in the context of contemporary American literature for her ability to weave global sociopolitical observations into narratives that switch back and further between contemporary issues and historical events.
Kushner's prose is both concise and poetic where it needs to be. She shows real skill in capturing human experiences against historical timescales. What's particularly impressive about this book is Kushner's sharp handling of both time and space. She weaves together the contemporary, the postwar and even the Neolithic in Creation Lake while addressing themes about capitalism, sexism and emic/etic perspectives.
Without getting too wanky about it, this is a deeply intertextual work that won't bore the piss out of you. It rewards reading without punishing you for the act.
The best book I've read in years. Kushner's got game. I haven't read any of her other work, but I'll definitely do so immediately.
