@@BobTheBookerer Here are my (probably rather pretentious!) thoughts on the book. If you read this expecting a tightly-plotted thriller then you're going to be disappointed. RK has done some interviews at book festivals, and she typically starts by reading that section near the beginning of the novel, where Sadie is driving her car. (Presumably RK is hinting that this is the key to understanding the book.) In the extract, Sadie explains that she feels rental cars to be rather disposable, and doesn't exercise much care while driving them. She's simply using them while she tries to find the directions to her 'destination'. Stretching that to fit her actual life, she spends her time trying out temporary generic characters (Sadie, Amy) and then carelessly 'driving' each new persona through the lives of the various people she meets. Just as with the rental cars, she doesn't care what damage she inflicts on the other humans, since she sees them all as part of a trivial disposable existence where nothing really means anything. (She frequently sees these real life characters as part as a film.) What Sadie really yearns for is to discover a deeper more profound life. As she reads Bruno's musings, she starts to tap into his sense that there's something of much greater weight lying way below the surface, and that we're just living at one end of a giant tree of humans/hominids etc. The Cagots, who have inhabited Vantome, seem to her to be a halfway point between the ancient Neanderthals and modern humans, and through them she feels a link going right back to the creation of humanity itself - hence the book's title. She's also fascinated by the star map that Bruno outlines for her. We end the book with her seemingly having called time on her work as an agent. In effect, she's ceased inhabiting the trivial and random world of modern humans - the plot fizzling out is intentional on the part of Rachel Kushner, since we're not supposed to actually attach any importance to the disposable world of modern humanity. Now, Sadie is living largely alone, tracing Bruno's patterns in the sky, and looking for directions to a more profound existence - one where we're connected to all of the other humans through time, just like Bruno in his cave, hearing countless voices from the deep past. Judging from the final few lines, it's not clear that she's actually found her location yet, but she feels she's going in the right direction. That's my interpretation, at any rate. I'm sure there are far much greater insights there which should reveal themselves with a second reading!
@@robinmorris113 ooooh, thank you so much for this! I love this, and there are lots of points here that I either missed in the book or didn’t think about! I really appreciate it!
I don’t mind spoilers so I watched all the way to the end. What you had to say has made me even more interested in reading this, so thank you. It will probably be a good while before I get to it, however, so I hope other readers can help you out with discussion.
Just finish the book, came back for your spoilers, and thought I’d share my take on your question. In Bruno's last email, he says that he has been reassessing, has lost his bearings, and will have to find new ones. And Sadie says “Bruno, I feel that way too.” There are also points at which Sadie seems to think that her good luck is running out, or that she is getting “sloppy.” So I think the ending does tie the two parts of the book together. She reassesses and cleans up her act (to an amusing extent), and maybe we start to realize that she is not as stupid as we thought. I enjoyed the book much more than I had expected to. Although, I too would have been happy to see her fly off to her next job in Malta - staying one step ahead of those looking for her.
Ahhh, thank you so much- I love that reading of it, and that makes a lot of sense. But yes, I’d have loved to have seen her disappearing off at the end on her next job!
Aha, yes, that was kind of my feeling at the end! I was really excited to see how it would bring together its thesis together. And then it sort of fizzled.
I had a similar reaction. I found the book a bit irritating. The beginning of the book was tough to get through for me as it felt like Kushner was wasting time. I was so fed up with Bruno's philosophy by the halfway mark of the novel. I feel that the reliance on Bruno's emails prevents us from getting to know other characters (especially the narrator which could be the point I suppose). I wanted to know more about the narrator, but the narrative just got in the way. The ending was a major letdown . It was rushed and too much of a joke (as you point out). I agree that the ending comes across as a copout. After last year when four of my least favourite books made the shortlist, I expect this to make the shortlist.
Yes! Although I enjoyed the mystery at first, and the way we are held off from knowing everything, by the end I was just baffled- it felt like there wasn’t really much pay off for a lot of the points raised. And aha, that’s fair- last year, that happened to me with a few!
Did you get hold of a review copy? It’s released in September? I wonder if it was influenced by Deluge by Stephen Markley. There’s a group in that book that carries out terrorist attacks on places and people they see as being responsible for the climate crisis. I have to drop off at spoiler territory as I still want to read it.
Good stuff! I just finished the book and I had a very different take on the Neanderthal stuff. I majored in Anthropology as an undergrad and judged the Neanderthal stuff Bruno went on and on about as total BS Bruno just pulled out of his @$$ and built a wacky philosophy around it. Bruno does seem interested in human evolution but he's like a creationist with it ... and he's become completely absorbed by the fictional narrative he's created about them. So there's nothing interesting about the Neaderthal stuff at all really, nothing worth revisiting--Bruno's the interesting one to track now that you're aware he's no scientist. Most of what he says about them is all in his own head!
Sadie is a narc. She’s despicable. The eco terrorists are ineffectual. Reminds me a lot of Birman Wood. I agree that it’s a bit conflicting. I’m finding it pretty funny and the whole Neanderthal thing is interesting. I’ll come back and watch the rest after I finish it. Sooo many people don’t see the humor. Some think Sadie is “cool”. Everyone in the book is a bit lost.
I will come back to this after I read it. Have it on order.
Ooh, I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!
Agree! There was a lot of information about Neanderthals that if it wasn’t there, I wouldnt have missed it.
Yeah! Especially as it was such a big part of the early stages of the book, and then at the end, it never quite paid off.
@@BobTheBookerer Here are my (probably rather pretentious!) thoughts on the book. If you read this expecting a tightly-plotted thriller then you're going to be disappointed. RK has done some interviews at book festivals, and she typically starts by reading that section near the beginning of the novel, where Sadie is driving her car. (Presumably RK is hinting that this is the key to understanding the book.)
In the extract, Sadie explains that she feels rental cars to be rather disposable, and doesn't exercise much care while driving them. She's simply using them while she tries to find the directions to her 'destination'. Stretching that to fit her actual life, she spends her time trying out temporary generic characters (Sadie, Amy) and then carelessly 'driving' each new persona through the lives of the various people she meets. Just as with the rental cars, she doesn't care what damage she inflicts on the other humans, since she sees them all as part of a trivial disposable existence where nothing really means anything. (She frequently sees these real life characters as part as a film.)
What Sadie really yearns for is to discover a deeper more profound life. As she reads Bruno's musings, she starts to tap into his sense that there's something of much greater weight lying way below the surface, and that we're just living at one end of a giant tree of humans/hominids etc. The Cagots, who have inhabited Vantome, seem to her to be a halfway point between the ancient Neanderthals and modern humans, and through them she feels a link going right back to the creation of humanity itself - hence the book's title. She's also fascinated by the star map that Bruno outlines for her.
We end the book with her seemingly having called time on her work as an agent. In effect, she's ceased inhabiting the trivial and random world of modern humans - the plot fizzling out is intentional on the part of Rachel Kushner, since we're not supposed to actually attach any importance to the disposable world of modern humanity. Now, Sadie is living largely alone, tracing Bruno's patterns in the sky, and looking for directions to a more profound existence - one where we're connected to all of the other humans through time, just like Bruno in his cave, hearing countless voices from the deep past. Judging from the final few lines, it's not clear that she's actually found her location yet, but she feels she's going in the right direction.
That's my interpretation, at any rate. I'm sure there are far much greater insights there which should reveal themselves with a second reading!
@@robinmorris113 ooooh, thank you so much for this! I love this, and there are lots of points here that I either missed in the book or didn’t think about! I really appreciate it!
I don’t mind spoilers so I watched all the way to the end. What you had to say has made me even more interested in reading this, so thank you. It will probably be a good while before I get to it, however, so I hope other readers can help you out with discussion.
Ooh, I’m glad to hear it! I hope you like it! And I’m keen to hear from people who love it!
Just finish the book, came back for your spoilers, and thought I’d share my take on your question. In Bruno's last email, he says that he has been reassessing, has lost his bearings, and will have to find new ones. And Sadie says “Bruno, I feel that way too.” There are also points at which Sadie seems to think that her good luck is running out, or that she is getting “sloppy.” So I think the ending does tie the two parts of the book together. She reassesses and cleans up her act (to an amusing extent), and maybe we start to realize that she is not as stupid as we thought.
I enjoyed the book much more than I had expected to. Although, I too would have been happy to see her fly off to her next job in Malta - staying one step ahead of those looking for her.
Ahhh, thank you so much- I love that reading of it, and that makes a lot of sense. But yes, I’d have loved to have seen her disappearing off at the end on her next job!
I feel like I'm going to pass on this one when it's released. Thank you for the considered feedback (as always)!
Aha, fair! I’m sure other people will enjoy it more, and I was so ready to like it, and then the end just deflated me.
And thank you!
I finished it today and wondered what I had missed. I liked her caustic view, but spent mw time waiting for something to happen. It didnt.
Aha, yes, that was kind of my feeling at the end! I was really excited to see how it would bring together its thesis together. And then it sort of fizzled.
I had a similar reaction. I found the book a bit irritating. The beginning of the book was tough to get through for me as it felt like Kushner was wasting time. I was so fed up with Bruno's philosophy by the halfway mark of the novel. I feel that the reliance on Bruno's emails prevents us from getting to know other characters (especially the narrator which could be the point I suppose). I wanted to know more about the narrator, but the narrative just got in the way. The ending was a major letdown . It was rushed and too much of a joke (as you point out). I agree that the ending comes across as a copout. After last year when four of my least favourite books made the shortlist, I expect this to make the shortlist.
Yes! Although I enjoyed the mystery at first, and the way we are held off from knowing everything, by the end I was just baffled- it felt like there wasn’t really much pay off for a lot of the points raised.
And aha, that’s fair- last year, that happened to me with a few!
Did you get hold of a review copy? It’s released in September? I wonder if it was influenced by Deluge by Stephen Markley. There’s a group in that book that carries out terrorist attacks on places and people they see as being responsible for the climate crisis. I have to drop off at spoiler territory as I still want to read it.
I did! The magic of NetGalley aha!
Good stuff! I just finished the book and I had a very different take on the Neanderthal stuff. I majored in Anthropology as an undergrad and judged the Neanderthal stuff Bruno went on and on about as total BS Bruno just pulled out of his @$$ and built a wacky philosophy around it. Bruno does seem interested in human evolution but he's like a creationist with it ... and he's become completely absorbed by the fictional narrative he's created about them. So there's nothing interesting about the Neaderthal stuff at all really, nothing worth revisiting--Bruno's the interesting one to track now that you're aware he's no scientist. Most of what he says about them is all in his own head!
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Sadie is a narc. She’s despicable. The eco terrorists are ineffectual. Reminds me a lot of Birman Wood. I agree that it’s a bit conflicting. I’m finding it pretty funny and the whole Neanderthal thing is interesting. I’ll come back and watch the rest after I finish it. Sooo many people don’t see the humor. Some think Sadie is “cool”. Everyone in the book is a bit lost.