Book report #55
What I read from Jan. 4 to Jan. 10: Creation Lake and more hockey smut
Ok, so I figured I should read some literature after all the boys.
It’s nice to read physical books. I’ve gotten out of the habit, because audio books are so convenient for commuting and other multitasking, but I think I have more of a dependency on my headphones than I do weed or alcohol.
Creation Lake, by Rachel Kushner 📖
Genre: Contemporary
What’s it about: An unnamed 34-year-old freelance spy, going by Sadie Smith, has been tasked with infiltrating a group of radicals in the French country side. She does this, first, by seducing a French filmmaker with ties to the group. He thinks he has run into a beautiful American dog walker by chance. She uses him to gain access to his friend, the leader of a movement opposed to the attempted industrialization of the countryside. As she cozies up to the group under the guise of being their translator, Sadie pores through the email manifestos of the group’s mysterious mentor, Bruce Lacombe. Lacombe believes the way to true freedom is in returning to living like the ancient neanderthals, and writes his philosophies from the caves he now lives in.
Sadie’s contacts ask her for information, then to incite the group to violence, and beyond. But as she draws her various contacts into her web, she’s increasingly seduced by Bruce Lacombe’s way of life.
Was it good? No, honestly at one point this became a hate read. How do you make a spy thriller so meandering and pointless? There are some really interesting ideas, but they don’t all connect into anything meaningful, and there are less understandable musings, such as an ongoing fascination with little boys who have sex, that don’t go anywhere and also distract from more interesting stuff. It is really well written, of course, Rachel Kushner has a great style. This is my second Kushner book, and she seems to have a preoccupation with women who seem to be incredibly aware of their objective value to men and simultaneously succumb and weaponize it. But it doesn’t really go beyond the surface. They’re cool girls with remove, and so while they act out their role as femme fatale with condescension, they still do it. And I just don’t see the point in that after a while.
Highlights:
Like Sadie, I too was seduce by Lacombe. I wish the whole book, in fact, was a biography of Lacombe.
Kushner has some funny and gorgeous turns of phrases, including:
“Pascal was said to have Debord’s sex appeal, back when Debord had sex appeal. (Late Debord’s face had grouwn to resemble that of a dead goldfish clotted with scurf, and I am not being fanciful here, but forensic and precise, given the photos of Late Debord included in my dossier. At the end of his life, he looks like a dead goldfish floating in a dirty bowl.)”
“His narrow shoulders jutted upward like two clothespins, like he was hanging from a laundry line.”
“The ideas that I developed are in fact one idea, he said: Children will choose love over brutality, if given the chance. Adults will do the same, if given the chance.
All acts of savagery originate with authority, he wrote.” — this is less a turn of phrase than a sentiment I agree with
“When you look at stars, Bruno said, you merge into the flow of time, the right-now and the before and the to-come.”
All Girls Be Mine Alone, by Sophia Strohmeier 📖
Genre: Contemporary fiction
What’s it about: An unnamed teen is a student at a music high school. First, she tells the story of her friendship and rivalry with popular student Joachim, and their conflict over Joachim’s girlfriend, who they both love. Then, she retells an anecdote she heard from a friend, a former opera singer, of her own lesbian experience at a music school in Russia. In the first story, the narrator is unabashed about her sexuality. But in the second, the character chocks up her lesbian feelings to being possessed by a perverted monk.
Was it good? Yes, but… it’s almost too ephemeral to me. It’s two stories connected by a single narrator, but the narrator experiences one story and recites the other by hearsay. They’re told with humor, but also some remove. It was very entertaining, and I whipped through it.
Highlights:
So as I read this I couldn’t help but muse about the differences between lesbian fiction and gay fiction. I read a lot of both, and I’m ashamed to say that often the lesbian fiction doesn’t often hit the same way gay fiction does in terms of entertainment value and sexiness value. And I’ve wondered if it’s my own internalized misogyny, or the fact that men and women love differently, or that queer people love differently, or that the lesbian fiction I’m reading is often by queer women while the gay fiction i’m reading is by (often) straight women. After reading All Girls Be Mine Alone, I wondered if it’s because the tension between women is just different. Our status in society is different and so the stakes are different. In this book, the love between women sparks because it’s in contrast to the love of men and the love for men. In a lot of ways the narrators relation to Joachim is what gives the story electricity, not her attraction to the women she doesn’t know but idolizes.
I’m a little resentful that the one sex act described in any detail is a handjob.
Thrum, by Meg Smitherman 🎧📖
Genre: Science fiction
What’s it about: When Ami awakens from deep stasis, she finds that she is the only surviving member of her crew. Not only that, but she is trapped in deep space on a malfunctioning ship, with no way to contact Earth. When she sends out a distress beacon, someone, or something, answers.
He calls himself Dorian, and welcomes her to his ship. Ami is relieved at first, and excited to have first contact with an alien. But she keeps hearing a beckoning thrum from within the ship, and she begins seeing visions, losing time and soon, she starts to question her sanity.
Was it good? Meh. I like the premise and it’s creepy and sexy, but for some reason it didn’t really pull at my imagination. All the weirdness is implied, and wanted it to be grosser and weirder. I also think I needed a bit more detail about Ami’s past and her relationships for the twist (which I was able to guess pretty early on) to really be impactful. I think it just wasn’t to my taste.
Highlights:
Dorian, the alien, visually portrays himself to Ami’s taste, which I guess is Victorian era guy?
It’s implied she had a relationship with one of her female crew mates, but I wish it had been clearer.
Tough Guy, by Rachel Reid 🎧
Genre: Romance, MLM
What’s it about: Ryan Price’s job on the ice is that of an enforcer: he not only protects his players but he starts, and finishes, fights. But in his personal life, he grapples with crippling anxiety. After he’s traded to the Toronto NHL team, he starts to explore getting out of his comfort zone. First, by getting more friendly with his teammates, and then, by exploring Toronto’s LGBTQ+ scene as an out gay man.
So, he’s delighted when he runs into Fabian, his high school crush. Fabian, an indie musician who hates hockey, agrees to take Ryan under his wing and show him the best parts of Toronto. But as they grow closer - emotionally and physically - Ryan’s demanding career threatens to tear them apart.
Was it good? Yes, but also as you know I’m addicted to the stupid hockey show and needed another fix. But this was sweet, and despite being the third or fourth one of these I’ve read, manages to explore another aspect of sexuality AND of hockey. It was cute!
Highlights:
So, I don’t know anything about hockey, and I don’t plan to get into it. But I did find Ryan’s role on his hockey team, and toll it takes on his mental and physical health, to be compelling drama.
This book expands on various ideas of masculinity and how people express or perform it in refreshingly open-minded ways and I really liked it.
DNF: Kiss the Villain, by Rina Kent 🎧
I’m not even gonna really get into this one. Like I knew it was going to be a dark romance but there’s rape in like…chapter two so I just didn’t continue.