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Shortlisted for the Booker prize 2024, quite surprised this novel instead of Playground by Richard Powers was chosen
A mix of spy novel and philosophy about how Homo Sapiens became the dominant species on earth. Protest and genuine concerns are being hacked into and usurped, similar to how Neanderthalers were done dirty
Violence is a reasonable response to a certain kind of threat

In Creation Lake are transported to 2010s Southern France (with Get Lucky of Daft Punk as soundtrack popping up repeatedly), where people speak Occitan. Sadie Smith, American, cynical, 34, is our narrator. She is tasked with infiltrating a commune that is in the way of mega waterbassins, dedicated to monocrop corn farming. Already once too enthusiastic for the FBI in inciting activists, she is now freelance and can use more dirty tricks to upend the commune. The philosophy part are from a mysterious Bruno, who lives in a cave and reminisces about Neanderthals in ever more wildly theoretical emails which form nearly half of the novel.

Then we also have a sub minister for agriculture slated for a visit, together with a thinly veiled Michel Houellebecq, forming a catalyst for Sadie to get the commune members into action.

I found the story rather slow for something branded as a spy novel. Rachel Kushner seems to acknowledge this as well, with on page 90 Sadie saying: It was time. Time to make something happen. Yet she only on page 150 meets the commune members. The first section of chapter 5, the Red and the Black, about the wartime experiences of Bruno, are quite touching, and Château de Gaumme’s bloody Cagot history is also really interesting, but somehow I found that the narrative just petered out a bit near the end of the book.

The complexity Sadie as main character offers, using sex to get her way, stealing and drinking while driving, yet also being looked down upon by the Paris elite and men in general and distrusted by women, is definitely the highlight of the book. She is a pawn of capitalism but also manages to exploit the patriarchy financially, making her a compelling main character. it is hard to say for instance who exploits who in the dynamic between Lucien and Sadie.

While the email sections started off incredibly strong (with this banger of an opening sentence: Neanderthals were prone to depression, he said. He said they were prone to addiction, too, and especially smoking.) the whole theme of reality and fiction we tell about history and against the mainstream narrative never became more than conceptually interesting. I did find Bruno expounding on his formative experiences in the war, including him finding a dead German soldier and losing his family in concentration camps, ending up Oliver Twist like in Paris after the war, interesting, but that was unfortunately only a small part of these sections.

Naivety is punished in this novel and anyone believing in a clean cult in opposition to capitalism will be disappointed. It hardly mattered if the eco people ever, or even, meant harm. Their protest and genuine concerns are being hacked and usurped, similar to how Neanderthalers were by Homo Sapiens.
A book I can admire more intellectually than that I loved it while reading it.

Quotes:
Charisma doesn’t originate inside the person called “charismatic�. It comes from the need of others that special people exist.

Stealing puts reality in sharper relief.

Currently, he said, we are headed toward extinction in a shiny, driverless car, and the question is: How do we exit this car?

I am a better driver after a few drinks, more focused.

Certain crimes are natural enough, even serious ones. Murder is understandable if you think about it.

He believed he deserved to fall in love (everyone believes they deserve this) and, in his specific case, with someone like me.

He had not changed the world. Instead, he had merely become famous.

Vito announced that I had trampled on his dream.
I told him that’s what dreams are for.

But Smith isn’t even a name. It’s a place holder.

Violence is a reasonable response to a certain kind of threat

Adulthood had sanded him into someone profoundly unremarkable.

Love confirms who a person is, and that they are worth loving. Politics do not confirm who a person is.

Renouncing individuality, that’s for rich kids

Part of what I appreciate about you, Burdmoore, is your directness and your simplicity of mind.

You fight for a lost status quo, he said, and your victory is what?
A slightly more functional capitalist relation.
That’s all.

2024 Booker prize personal ranking, shortlisted books in bold:
1. Held (4.5*) - Review: /review/show...
2. Playground (4.5*) - Review: /review/show...
3. James (4*) - Review: /review/show...
4. Wandering Stars (4*) - Review: /review/show...
5. Headshot (3.5*) - Review: /review/show...
6. The Safekeep (3.5*) - Review: /review/show...
7. My Friends (3.5*) - Review: /review/show...
8. Stone Yard Devotional (3.5*) - Review: /review/show...
9. This Strange and Eventful History (3*) - Review: /review/show...
10. Creation Lake (3*) - Review: /review/show...
11. Enlightenment (3*) - Review: /review/show...
12. Orbital (2.5*) - Review: /review/show...
13. Wild Houses (2.5*) - Review: /review/show...