"Creation Lake is a novel about a freelance agent a 34-year-old American woman of ruthless
tactics and 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. We never learn her real name. Sadie
has met her lover Lucien a young and well-born Parisian by "cold bump"- making him believe
the encounter was accidental. And like everyone she chooses to interact with Lucien is useful
to her used by her. Sadie operates on 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 lives in a vast network of underground caves on his daughter's land and
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 before civilization. Just as Sadie is
certain she's the seductress and puppet master of those whom 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 propulsive
and dazzling. Creation Lake is Kushner's finest achievement yet as a novelist a work of high
art high comedy keen insights and unforgettable pleasure. From Rachel Kushner on the title:
My character Bruno refers to "a deep cistern of voices the lake of our creation" - meaning all
of human history the whole struggle in which chains of civilizations try to figure out how to
live. He believes he can hear these voices underground. To me "Creation Lake" suggests
intrigue. Creation of what? In Sadie's case a persona a feint a manipulation. But also in
her case the creation possibly of her own soul"--
