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.

It was a waste of my time.

It was disjointed and tedious
Characters were confusing and some were irrelevant.
The storyline was interrupted with sidetracks.

why?

i feel like i missed something. the philosophical questions reflected were mundane and obvious and the plot never came to anything. the commitment to a sense that things happen for no reason i usually like, but didn’t here. i think the best thing was trying to enjoy a narrator who is a sociopath, that’s an interesting project but not really satisfying either. also a sense this was deeply conventional but we’re always so excited to call whatever’s new absolutely groundbreaking, not at all

The last two hours

Mostly tedious, but I enjoyed the anthropological and astrological history. What have we, as humans, kept as DNA or innate knowledge from our early ancestors?

more hype than substance

The story promises far more than it's author delivers, although one feels as if they were often holding back in order to maintain a fashionably ironic tone towards the narrative.

Interesting story - boring presentation

The reading is too monotone. It does not match the story. I understand Sadie’s is to come across as a calculating spy and undercover agent but the story has more to give especially as the actin and tension intensify.