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Creation Lake

By: Rachel Kushner
Narrated by: Rachel Kushner
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Publisher's summary

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 thriller 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 listener.

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.

©2024 Rachel Kushner (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by LitHub, The Millions, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Guardian, and Publishers Weekly

What listeners say about Creation Lake

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Author should not have been the reader

This would have been so much better with a professional reader. The author is so out of sync with the character and left it hard to engage with the story. Felt like an obligation to listen.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

I couldn’t bother to finish it.

It just droned on about nothing. I tried to stay with it, but gave up.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Tedious plot line, I kept thinking it would pick up pace but never did.

A truly narcissistic unlikable main character who seemed unable to have emotional attachment to any others in her life could have been interesting but just wasn’t. It made me feel despondent.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A Wandering Tale

Too discursive for me. It was difficult and distracting trying to remember which characters were in the current story line and who was from other missions.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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Waste of time

Seems like. No point. A few interesting pieces but nothing to really grab into. Sad lost lonely but not worth the time

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Doesn’t deserve the positive reviews it received

Here’s an example why:

“…taking advantage of the fact I speak French, Italian, Spanish & German…
I am fluent in all those languages, although I speak with a strong American accent. People think fluency is about having a good accent - it isn’t. Fluency is about how well you understand the language and how well you are able to speak it. Having a good accent is nothing, it is a consolation prize for people that are fluent.”

That is ridiculous. That sounds like a classic American comment from somebody that speaks a foreign language “ok” but can’t and doesn’t integrate into the local society and culture and probably doesn’t ready the local newspaper’s editorials and has now clue on what’s going on in that international city they live in. They’re probably a clueless gringo living with and surrounded by expats. Does that sound like a cool spy you want to read about?

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

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.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

When does the story begin?

I am over halfway through and I’m still waiting for the plot to commence. Excellent descriptions and word pictures. But, no character development.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Why do authors narrate their own books?

Interesting and subtle story. Got tired of narration early. Nice voice but pacing was inconsistent with too many pauses.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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I Don’t Get the Hype

I don’t know what to make of this book. I made it a quarter of the way through and found myself dreading the chore of picking it up again. The monologue of an uninteresting young woman tramping around France while bleating endlessly about Neanderthals, or something. Am I missing something? Why do people like this book?

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