Charisma and More

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Creation Lake 

by Rachel Kushner

“Charisma does not originate inside the person called “charismatic.” It comes from the need of others to believe that special people exist.”

― Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake

Rachel Kushner's fourth book, Creation Lake, is a blend of dark satire, philosophical analysis, and espionage thriller that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award. It centers on Sadie Smith, a 34-year-old American freelance spy with a "clean beauty" and a brutal edge who is assigned to infiltrate an anarchist collective plotting against industrial agriculture. The story takes place in the rural southwest of France amid eco-activism and prehistoric echoes. Sadie's witty, sardonic first-person narrative is intercut with emails from Bruno Lacombe, a reclusive philosopher who is fascinated by Neanderthals, caves, and human origins. In her most plot-driven work to date, Kushner—a two-time Booker and National Book Award finalist best known for The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room—weaves noir tension with reflections on identity, ideology, and extinction.
Kushner has a taut, erudite, and wryly humorous prose that transcends the conventions of the genre. Sadie's sardonic, disdainful, and increasingly reflective voice propels the book's fast-paced reimagining of the spy thriller. Its intellectual bravery is praised by critics, who point out that it asks important questions like "What is a human being?" Sadie's cynicism contrasts with the activists' idealism through Bruno's tangential dispatches on Neanderthal depression and cave art.

The scene is a grim "proletarian 'real Europe'" of nuclear power plants, reservoirs, and peasant uprisings; it feels urgent, mocking characters such as Michel Houellebecq (posing as "Michel Thomas") while paying homage to actual ZAD (zones to defend) movements.

I was impressed with Sadie, the main character, who was intelligent and perceptive, if occasionally chilly, even though it occasionally seemed to be a jumble of fact and whimsical imagination, fragmented, with vignettes that don't always cohere. It's a fun, approachable book with a fantastic plot that balances prehistory, agriculture, and chaos. Fans of Le Carré will love it.

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