Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

French eco-terrorists planning a violent protest to an environment-altering dam project are infiltrated by a ruthless and skilled young female provocateur who finds a deeper philosophical life in the writings of one of the movement’s theorists. Suspenseful and richly complex. Satisfyingly current.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Scribner
Hardcover | $29.99
9781982116521
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A book longlisted for the Booker Prize, this complex novel tells the story of a woman who is a disgraced agent provocateur for the U.S. government now working in the same capacity as a private contractor. In her persona as “Sadie Smith” she has infiltrated an eco-activist group in rural France her employers suspect of hatching a plot to disrupt a major dam project that will adversely affect the farming in the region. She has wangled an affair with a minor filmmaker who is loosely associated with the organizers and who provides her with an entre to the group. We quickly find that she is highly skilled at her craft and utterly ruthless. Other than her designated mission, she cares for no one, for no moral, social or political philosophy, only her job and how it relates to her financial well-being.

 

She does, however, in her research, come across an elderly theorist who at one time was a prime mover of the counterculture in which she becomes embroiled but is now, in his old age, becoming more philosophical and muses at length about human behavior in the distant past – beyond the stone age. As she reads his emails and recognizes that his current advice is falling on deaf ears, she begins to take seriously his advice to the extent that she even seeks to find and talk to him. From working with the eco-terrorists by day and dreaming of the old man’s thoughts on ancient humanity, nature and the cosmos by night, her purpose loses focus. Still, she is bound to push her employer’s agenda which is to result in violence that will cast the group of activists in a negative light.

 

Written with great skill and an impressive grasp of history, anthropology, French culture, cinema and music, the narration maintains a high degree of suspense while supporting an erudite tone. There is a minor seminar on films of the great French directors. The effect is one of verisimilitude and genuine knowledge of her subject that brings a sense of reality to this fictional account of what is undoubtedly an actual phenomenon. It is a fully engaging and eminently satisfying kind of book that leaves the reader feeling that every possibility has been addressed, every aspect has been given adequate attention.