Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Bunch of Neanderthals

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

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Creation Lake, a very buzzy novel from last year, is a spy novel not content with “merely” being a spy novel. It’s protagonist is a freelance agent, currently on an assignment to infiltrate a commune of environmentalists living in the French countryside. She is meant to find out if they are planning any violent protests due to some recent pro-business policies put in place by the French government, or possibly to foment some plans if none are currently in the works. Not even the reader […]

Don’t Mean to Spy

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

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I’ve tried Rachel Kushner’s books before but they’re a little over my head. However, I’m on a spy kick and it just so happens that her new one is a critically acclaimed spy novel and, while knowing it would still be different from the usual pulpy thrill of typical espionage fare, I decided to try it. The cool thing about writing espionage is that we all desire to lead secret lives and espionage fiction allows us to explore that. The sad necessity of hiding human […]

Burn it all down

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

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I will not mince words: I did not like this book. I had high expectations based on all the accolades this novel received, but those expectations did not pan out. The novel is told from the point of view of a nameless main character, whose boyfriend nicknames her Reno after her hometown. After graduating from art school in Nevada in the late sixties, she moves to New York City to try and become an artist.  Once in NYC she haphazardly falls in with a pretentious […]

“Fools love to declare that they don’t suffer fools.”

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

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Repulsive, decadent, and entitled people populate these pages and you know what? I do not care! I loved it! I loved it for all of the things that it tries to be, all of the things that it mercilessly tears apart, and all of the things that it will not and cannot be. This is a lightning rod for artists, revolutionaries, trust-fund princes, and girls next door. While this book takes place mostly in the 70s, I felt like I had been a part of […]

So 2/3rds of this person is interesting, or what even is an editor?

The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner

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Well, it’s 1975, and the Red Brigade has exploded in Italy. Riots in the streets, and the wealthy (especially their kids) are kidnapped with impunity. You might have heard of J. Paul Getty’s grandson. His kidnappers sent a piece of his ear to his grandfather to show they were serious. Getty famously replied, meh. At least the grandson eventually was let go, but others did not survive. Fortunately, all of Getty’s money ended up resulting in a couple of fabulous museums. So this the world […]

It’s not you… it’s me.

The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

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The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner was given to me by my boss. I appealed to her good taste for help in finding my next Cannonball Read selection, as I knew she’d point me to something deep and meaningful. I was not wrong. The Mars Room read like a collection of thoughtful anecdotes from a life filled with tragedy. The novel commences with the musings, recollections, and observations of our main character as she barrels along in prison transport to serve a life sentence in […]



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