Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner

15 Oct

Creation Lake had been on my reading radar since I first heard about it, and when it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, I was even more intrigued.

The novel centres on Sadie Smith, an American thirty-four-year-old who is a spy for hire. Her current contract leads her to France, where she has been tasked with infiltrating a group of eco-activists who may have sabotaged some earth moving equipment at an industrial reservoir. Her job is to prove that they did it, or make it seem that they did. The group follow the teachings of a man called Bruno Lacombe, who has rejected all the trappings of modern civilisation and now lives in a cave.

Sadie’s mission is interspersed with long correspondences from Bruno to his followers, all of which Sadie has intercepted and is reading for herself. As she reads more about him and his beliefs, she starts to question her own morality and, as she inveigles her way into his community, she begins to understand the motivations of the many people who have decided to join.

Creation Lake is a novel that has given me a lot to think about in terms of collective morality, our actions and our place in the world. Personally, I felt that some of the correspondence from Bruno Lacombe overwhelmed the movement of the plot at some points, but perhaps this was because I felt more connected to Sadie and wanted to find out whether she was going to successfully infiltrate and stop the activists.

This is a timely and thought-provoking novel that provides a completely subversive reading experience. Sadie is a brilliantly written protagonist, she is far from perfect, but she knows it; she is unapologetic, loud and vulnerable at times. Sadie is impossible to look away from and even more difficult to forget, and Creation Lake is undoubtedly her novel.