Creation Lake

A Novel

De: Rachel Kushner

Narrado por: Rachel Kushner

2024 AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE EARPHONES AWARD WINNER!

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 PEN FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION*
*AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*
*NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE ATLANTIC, VULTURE, VOGUE, THE WASHINGTON POST, KIRKUS REVIEWS, NPR, THE ECONOMIST, THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, VOX, and more*

From Rachel Kushner, two-time finalist for both the Booker Prize and National Book Award, a “vital” (The Washington Post) and “wickedly entertaining” (The Guardian) novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France—a propulsive page-turner filled with dark humor.

Creation Lake is a novel about a secret agent, a thirty-four-year-old American woman of ruthless tactics and clean beauty who is sent to do dirty work in France. “Sadie Smith” is how the narrator introduces herself to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to her lover, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian she has met by “cold bump”—making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone she 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 old farms and prehistoric caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who believes that the path to emancipation 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 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—a work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure.©2024 Rachel Kushner (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Not What I expected.

Apparently Rachel Kushner is a big name in the literature world so it got lots of press. When this book came out it was touted as part espionage and suspense. There is little of either with lots of meandering conversations about neanderthal man, etc etc. Great book if you like that sort of thing. Not my cup of tea.

A podium for philosophies

This was not a thriller, as advertised, but the simple story arch that served as a vector for the author to explore quasi anthropological musings. Not a lot of depth of character. Not event a ton of plot.

Story was better than the narrator

The narrator was a little monotone. The story was slow and never really got exciting. I kept waiting for something to happen and it never really did.

Not a Favorite

Too much meandering prose with half-baked philosophical commentary that seemed like filler, not connected in a meaningful way to the actual story. Not sure that author was well-served by also being the audiobook narrator.

What could have been

Lovely prose but an aimless story with dull, uninteresting characters across the board. Started in the middle and ended slightly further into the middle.

I wish the author wasn’t the narrator

It was a difficult listen. With a different narrator I think it might have been an enjoyable one.

Had to force it

The book ended well… But it was hard to connect with the protagonist and a bunch of other characters that you didn’t care for. It was really hard to understand what was happening at the outset as well… Just generally did not enjoy.

Tone deaf performance

The book is read by the author who reads every line as if it’s poetry, not noir. She has poor insight into what a reader wants when they pick up a book about a femme fatale and even less about how we she sounds when she speaks. The narrator should be matter of fact and hard-boiled. She should read the book in a voice that is cold, not dreamy.

Boring

I don’t get the hype. It is described as “taut” and “funny” but I didn’t hear anything funny or exciting.

Not her best book…

Although the narrator was purportedly a polyglot who spoke French, the narration showed someone who had not the slightest idea of how to pronounce even the most basic of French words. I cringed every time I heard these miss pronounced words, which probably had a large effect on me, not enjoying the book.