Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner

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A 34 year old secret agent using the alias Sadie Smith infiltrates an activist collective in Southern France. Past, present and the future are examined in this region of centuries-old farms and ancient caves as Sadie becomes entranced by the preachings of the collective’s leader, Bruno Lacombe, who believes the path to a secure future is a return to the ancient past. 

But why would you want to survive mass death? What would be the purpose of life, if life were reduced to a handful of armed pessimists hoarding canned foods and fearing each other? In a bunker, you cannot hear the human community in the earth, the deep cistern of voices, the lake of our creation.

● Sadie Smith is my favourite character of the Booker shortlist. She is focused and resolute, sarcastic and wry. She is neither pitiful nor super heroic as female leads often are, but instead a beguiler who has taken over from Rachel Kushner in the telling of the story and in the creation of herself. She offers a reliable outlook because she’s so blatant and bold in the telling of herself. I felt swept away in her life and her persona.

As Sadie infiltrates the activist group in Southern France, she reads the leader’s manifest emails which challenge his followers to examine the past as a way to find resolution for the future. His voice and hers challenge the reader in equal measure but in different ways and fit together like puzzle pieces. He examines astrology, philosophy, ideologies, capitalism, technology and history; he is a God-like figure spouting belief from beyond visibility. Her astute observations of humanity and behaviour are resultantly affected, and as D-Day approaches for intervention at the collective, she begins to re-examine her own identity and creation.

I love to analyse characters and Sadie is so layered, I felt like I could ponder her all day. Bruno’s observations are equally fascinating. Plus I loved the slow burn of a plot and the appropriate ending to this book. Rachel Kusher is a talented writer of nuance and has kept me thinking aplenty since I read the last page. – Rachel

● While I don’t agree with the Observer comment that this is some kind of a Kill Bill/John le Carre hybrid, I do agree that it’s smart, funny and compulsively readable.

I’ll always prefer a book that places me smack-bang into the action, rather than holding me at arm’s length, and I thoroughly enjoyed feeling somehow enmeshed in the life of this undercover American spy in France. The gradual building of tension was as enjoyable as the climactic scene, which is not always the case in books with a similar structure. Another great read from Rachel Kushner. – Suzy

Published 2024
Scribner
416 pages