Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Surfacing” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Surfacing

Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

3.46 · Rating details · 20,595 ratings · 1,341 reviews

Part detective novel, part psychological thriller, Surfacing is the story of a talented woman artist who goes in search of her missing father on a remote island in northern Quebec.Setting out with her lover and another young couple, she soon finds herself captivated by the isolated setting, where a marriage begins to fall apart, violence and death lurk just beneath the ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, New edition, 251 pages

Published March 29th 1979 by Virago Press Ltd (first published 1972)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Surfacing, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Favorite Virago Modern Classics

266 books — 190 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.46 ·

Rating details

· 20,595 ratings · 1,341 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Surfacing

Sep 15, 2015 Fabian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Nothing good ever comes from two couples locking themselves in some cabin in the woods. (See "Evil Dead," "Cabin Fever," "Cabin in the Woods"... well, actually just the first one [for I do think the latter two suh-uck!]) Ehhh-verr.

But Margaret Atwood is not a horror writer. This is her take on the isolation that begets thoughts too deep to describe other than in her language. With a lyrical poetic voice, we see here precursors to the also extraordinary "Alias Grace" & "The Blind Assassin" ...more

flag 156 likes · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2018 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, margaret-atwood

On the surface, this novel is a detective story.

A woman travels in the company of friends to a remote island to find out what happened to her father, who suddenly disappeared without a trace. Underneath the surface, stored memories of things past begin to move - upward, outward - until they burst like bubbles when they are surfacing.

Our identity is formed and guided as much by the things we have lost as by the things we still have. In fact, sometimes what we lose sticks more heavily in our On the surface, this novel is a detective story.

A woman travels in the company of friends to a remote island to find out what happened to her father, who suddenly disappeared without a trace. Underneath the surface, stored memories of things past begin to move - upward, outward - until they burst like bubbles when they are surfacing.

Our identity is formed and guided as much by the things we have lost as by the things we still have. In fact, sometimes what we lose sticks more heavily in our thoughts, preventing us from enjoying what we have at the moment. Facing the trauma of a forced loss - an involuntary abortion - the young woman moves away from the life she created for herself as a grown-up person, and lets go of civilised behaviour to find back to her natural roots. She becomes one with earth, fire, water and air, loses touch with modern life - "American" is her generalised term for the half-machines that take over the natural habitats of the planet. Letting her wild interior surface, she heals from the wound she has carried underneath a facade of superficial adaptation.

In an act of faith in the power of mysterious nature, she creates an auto-da-fé of her past self, burning the traces of her old identity while reinventing a person ready to live and to give life. She is surfacing. From hell over purgatory and heaven back to life, in a dantesque journey of bizarre proportions. In the woods, in the water, in the fire, in the air, she finds the self she lost:

"This above all, to refuse to be a victim. Unless I can do that, I can do nothing. I have to recant, give up the old belief that I am powerless and and because of it nothing I can do will ever hurt anyone. A lie which was always more disastrous than the truth would have been. The word games, the winning and losing games are finished; at the moment there are no others but they will have to be invented, withdrawing is no longer possible and the alternative is death. [...] I reenter my own time."

Fantastic novel of introspection and unresolved pain. Beautifully clear and fragile, like a bubble surfacing in the water. ...more

flag 113 likes · Like · see review

Dec 01, 2017 Barry Pierce rated it really liked it

Shelves: 20th-century, read-in-2017

Atwood's previous novel, The Edible Woman, dealt with a young woman who is so terrified of marriage that it causes her to lose her touch with reality and fall deeper and deeper into mental illness. It was a good novel but its biggest weakness was its plot. In Surfacing, Atwood treads much of the same ground but completely jettisons any semblance of a plot and thus presents us with a far more intriguing and mature work.

Our unnamed female narrator brings her lover and their two (married) friends Atwood's previous novel, The Edible Woman, dealt with a young woman who is so terrified of marriage that it causes her to lose her touch with reality and fall deeper and deeper into mental illness. It was a good novel but its biggest weakness was its plot. In Surfacing, Atwood treads much of the same ground but completely jettisons any semblance of a plot and thus presents us with a far more intriguing and mature work.

Our unnamed female narrator brings her lover and their two (married) friends to her childhood lakeside cabin in the woods for a brief getaway from life and for the two men to capture some footage for the amateur film they are producing. She hides her true intentions of returning to this familiar lake however. She is trying to find her father. Long missing, our narrator does not presume him dead but instead believes that he is still alive and living by the lake. The whole novel is essentially our narrator's internal monologue throughout this strange week by the lake.

It becomes obvious early on that we are stuck in the mind of a mentally ill young woman. Her grasp on reality is oneiric and muddied, leading to the whole novel being written in a semi-lucid and dreamlike style. There are passages of this novel which would be better described as poetry than prose, as our narrator seemingly slips in and out of her reality and into a chimerical and other-worldly state. The novel is also almost oppressively atmospheric with dirt and grit rammed underneath its fingernails. What I'm basically saying is that if this were adapted into a movie today it would have a lot of Sufjan Stevens on the soundtrack.

I found myself completely absorbed by this novel. The manner of Atwood's prose baits you into reading the whole novel in a small series of large chucks and whilst I did find the narrative to be languorous at times I could not seem to escape the narrator's mindset. In Surfacing you find yourself set adrift in the murky waters of a young woman's mind. The gentle current guides you along as you drift further and further into the darkest recesses of the lake, without even the faintest semblance of a paddle to navigate your way. ...more

flag 79 likes · Like · see review

Oct 11, 2016 Robin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, canadian-lit, pre-goodreads, 2017, buddy-read, 1001-before-you-die

The last time I read this 1972 beauty was approximately half my lifetime ago. It was a vital part of a never-waning appreciation and adoration for Margaret Atwood's work. I'm pretty sure I didn't quite get it then, being a very young adult, unaware of many things going on in this far-out, complex ride into the Canadian wilderness.

Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. But I do know I loved it then, and I love it now.

What was different this time around was I had a better idea of the time in which it was The last time I read this 1972 beauty was approximately half my lifetime ago. It was a vital part of a never-waning appreciation and adoration for Margaret Atwood's work. I'm pretty sure I didn't quite get it then, being a very young adult, unaware of many things going on in this far-out, complex ride into the Canadian wilderness.

Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. But I do know I loved it then, and I love it now.

What was different this time around was I had a better idea of the time in which it was set, what it might have been like for a woman then. As well, having spent 8 years living in Quebec, I know first hand the prejudices and tensions between English and French. I've also read a hell of a lot more contemporary literary fiction, and, yep, this one still stands up. Magnificently.

What's it about? Hah. That's a fantastic question. I'll attempt to answer...

A nameless protagonist is in northern Quebec, in a very remote area, in search of her father who has gone missing. She brings with her Joe (her boyfriend) and another couple, Anna and David (who are super effed up, btw). She also brings with her ghosts from her past, things that have haunted her her entire life and have somehow kept her separate from others, even from herself, even from the reader (who cannot hope to relate to her, and doesn't ever even learn her name).

They stay in her father's very rustic cabin while she searches for him. And tensions mount. There is a constricting malevolence present; there are eyes that seem to be watching, a predatory atmosphere. What should be an idyllic week of camping in the woods, is ... not. Though this book definitely has environmental themes, it isn't described in Wordsworthian swoon-inducing curlicues. In fact, what with the leeches, the rotting bird carcass, the entrails, et al, nature isn't something to mess with.

You could decide she's losing her mind, there's plenty of things that would support that idea. But the way I see it, our girl is in the process of "surfacing" - which to me is someone coming out of the depths, to breathe air. She's rejecting the world she came from, rejecting marriage, kids, religion, French Canadians, Americans (SO anti-American... this I gotta say I didn't quite understand), career, and sex (described several times as death). She morphs into her true self, where titles, statuses, even forms are not necessary to define her identity.

I am not an animal or a tree, I am the thing in which the trees and animals move and grow, I am a place

I enjoyed and was fascinated by this book, all the way through. I marvelled at the writing. It's poetic, visually evocative, full of mood. But it's complex. It's slippery. I wouldn't say it's an easy or "delightful" read. It's more how I feel about eating a kale salad... I know it's good for me, I know it's important. Margaret Atwood is such a powerhouse, "feminist" does not cover it; she shoots female identity so far out of the box, she isn't contained by language, clothes, or definitions.

I tried for all those years to be civilized but I'm not and I'm through pretending. ...more

flag 64 likes · Like · see review

Jun 17, 2017 Julie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: buddy-reads, o-canada

If you ever happen to walk up to a fresh water lake and see me in it, go find a damn life preserver and toss it in, immediately. There are only two reasons that I'd ever stick one toe in that leech-infested nastiness: I have fallen in and I am drowning, or I'm rescuing another person who is drowning. Either way, we require assistance.

Similarly, if you ever happen to walk up and see me with a fishing pole in my hand, you can consider me the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse. The day I stick bait ...more

flag 61 likes · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2009 Cecily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: miscellaneous-fiction, canada-and-usa

A story of loss and struggle for identity around a remote Canadian lake in the 60s (ish). It starts out slowly and straightforwardly with two couples visiting the remote island cabin that belonged to the narrator’s missing father. However, it becomes evident (I can hardly say “clear”) that there is much more going on. There are tensions between and within the couples, the narrator’s own story is tantalisingly contradictory and it’s not always clear at first whether she’s talking literally or ...more

flag 57 likes · Like · see review

Dec 31, 2008 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: maple-flavoured

An always thought-provoking, awe-inspiring and disturbing plunge into the depths of Atwood's (early) vision, voice and artistry. Everything and more than I remembered. It reads equally as powerful and mostly as relevant today as it did when I first read it, not so long (these things are relative; I re-read this on my 50th birthday) after it was published in 1972.

I feel sorry for readers who find this plotless, obtuse and unfinished. It is nothing short of perfect, in my mind. Atwood probes An always thought-provoking, awe-inspiring and disturbing plunge into the depths of Atwood's (early) vision, voice and artistry. Everything and more than I remembered. It reads equally as powerful and mostly as relevant today as it did when I first read it, not so long (these things are relative; I re-read this on my 50th birthday) after it was published in 1972.

I feel sorry for readers who find this plotless, obtuse and unfinished. It is nothing short of perfect, in my mind. Atwood probes memory, language, meaning and identity (personal, national), knitting together a story of a mind unravelling under the pressure of grief, de-individuation, and the conventional social and gender roles that just don't fit and need to be shed like skin. She uses characters, dialogue and scenes to skim in and out of internal and external realities, diving into and through layers of consciousness and back and forth through time. But this is by no means post-modern (or is it? Is this novel pre post-modern? Discuss.). There seems to me nothing meta or deliberately self-conscious happening here. Atwood quickly immerses you and holds you down in the story.

She forces you to pay attention. Every word matters; every image thrums with poetic resonance of what has gone before and what will come after. She constructs her story by deconstructing her protagonist's past, and more specifically, the many layers of self-deception, delusion and imposed meaning (the sediment of personal history) that muddies the truth. Yet, does the protagonist ever really go mad? She devolves; she goes down and in, in order to confront her past and her truth and to emerge whole. The novel is, after all, called Surfacing. That doesn't seem to me insane; it seems necessary.

There's another review to be written about the theme of Canadian national identity that was, in the early 70s, also (re-)surfacing: the Quebec v. rest of Canada theme, which gives the themes of language, of the difficulty communicating, and the idea of separation an entirely new meaning; and Canada v. America, with the idea of cultural appropriation and overtaking violence the undertone. These themes Atwood weaves together with the personal story. And there is, of course, an environmental / conservation theme that is important. So there are these three worlds colliding and transforming--the personal, the political and the natural--providing not just setting and context but illuminating the commentary the novel is making on separation / individuation, self-definition, and identity; creativity and destruction; birth (and rebirth) and death.

Here are some of my favourite bits - spoilers because they mark essential revelations (I would call them plot points, but let's face it, plot is a little too generous a concept). These mark the most Atwoodian use of language: poetic and suggestive, more than descriptive or concrete. They rely on the reader having read carefully to that point; and then they deliver with a gut-punch of comprehension that belies the abstract, disembodied words and images themselves. Read these at the risk of potentially dulling their impact if you're going to read or re-read this novel:

(view spoiler)

and then (with the always satisfying visceral, gritty Atwood detail; also, read it aloud and hear the SOUND of the words--another element of the poetry):

(view spoiler)

The best writing, ever. The best writer. Not to diss Munro, but god Atwood should've - should still - get the Nobel.
...more

flag 43 likes · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2016 Maria rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, north-america, want-to-re-read, margaret-atwood

This is one of the most poetic and haunting books I have ever read. I marked it as a favorite, and noticed once again that my favorite books often gets a wide variety of ratings, some people love it, while quite a few states that it's not their cup of tea. Maybe that's because I'm not really a "reading for the plot" type of reader. Although I have really liked some fast paced and suspenseful books, that kind of story will never be among my favorites. Surfacing is not particularly plot driven. This is one of the most poetic and haunting books I have ever read. I marked it as a favorite, and noticed once again that my favorite books often gets a wide variety of ratings, some people love it, while quite a few states that it's not their cup of tea. Maybe that's because I'm not really a "reading for the plot" type of reader. Although I have really liked some fast paced and suspenseful books, that kind of story will never be among my favorites. Surfacing is not particularly plot driven. Although the characters clash over many things, and it touches on feminism, Canadian nationalism and environmentalism, among other things, it's mostly a psychological novel, concerning the Canadian wilderness and its effect on the main character.

A young woman returns to her childhood home to search for her father, who has gone missing. She brings her boyfriend and another couple with her, and they are staying at her father's wilderness cabin. For the others this is mostly a holiday, but for the unnamed protagonist, childhood memories and old, resurfacing knowledge on how to survive in the wilderness of northern Quebec, pulls her further and further away from the others, until the wilderness completely consumes her. Slowly she sheds her city life, and all demands it has made on her, especially demands related to social gender. The way I see it, she lives a freer and more authentic life this way.

The book has been criticized for connecting women with nature, animals and brute instincts, while men gets to represent culture and civilization, and claims have been made that the book is, therefore, not a feminist novel. I realize that it can be read that way, but for me it seemed that city life was the most constricting and limiting thing that had ever happened to this young woman, and when she got away from civilization, away from other peoples opinions and judgments, she could simply be, simply exist, without gender norms, without being put into different boxes like "woman", "mother" and so on.

A lot of people read simply to see what happens next, but I need something more than that to really love a book. This book is poetry. Its deep, complex, psychological, the atmosphere seeps into you and gives you a unique feeling, and that's what makes it one of my favorites. ...more

flag 41 likes · Like · see review

Nov 24, 2017 Chrissie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: philo-psychol, mystery, relationships, canada, returned, feminism, audible-uk, 2-itunes-library, 2019-read, thriller

This novel of Atwood's borders on being speculative fiction. It has neither supernatural nor futuristic elements, but the reader sees into the head of an individual on the verge of insanity. We are shown the world of the central protagonist’s distorted and twisted imagination.

The central protagonist is a woman in her late twenties. She is unnamed and the narrator of the story. She is searching for her missing father, who had been residing on an island in a lake in northern Quebec. She travels ...more

flag 39 likes · Like · see review

Jan 19, 2020 Paul Bryant rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

In The Evil Dead these kids go and stay in a remote cabin out in the woods and they release evil spirits that want to kill them etc. In Cabin Fever these kids go and stay in a remote cabin out in the woods and catch a flesh eating disease and die and go mad, etc. In The Cabin in the Woods these kids go and stay in a remote cabin way out in the woods where a zombie army tries to kills them etc. Now these are movies but in Surfacing, which is a book, these kids go and stay in a remote cabin out in In The Evil Dead these kids go and stay in a remote cabin out in the woods and they release evil spirits that want to kill them etc. In Cabin Fever these kids go and stay in a remote cabin out in the woods and catch a flesh eating disease and die and go mad, etc. In The Cabin in the Woods these kids go and stay in a remote cabin way out in the woods where a zombie army tries to kills them etc. Now these are movies but in Surfacing, which is a book, these kids go and stay in a remote cabin out in the woods but the big difference is there are no zombies and flesh eating bugs and evil spirits at all all though are they. It is a profound question.

The couples go fishing and they catch something that I thought was a symbol, but I did not know what it was a symbol of.

The prottergonist does not have a name. This surprises me. It may be no one noticed but you will think that somebody should of read this book before it was printed and pointed this out. So I will have to describe the prottergonist as The Prot as it is easier.

The prot’s father has disappeared and that is why they go to the remote cabin. They think he had gone feral . The situation could be like Man Thing, which is a manga I have read, but it is not, as the Prot’s father does not became a Man Thing. I was thinking that if the father did become a Man Thing he would be waiting in the woods and catch them and rip them up to make more Man Things, but this does not happen.

There is not much action at all. There is no fighting, no gun play, no tree masking, no aliens. For instance, in The Kurosawi Corpse Delivery Service which is a manga I have read there is mutilation, embalming and martial arts fighting, it is an exciting story. But in Surfacing there isn’t any of that. The Prot spends a lot of time looking for somethig, either the missing father or something else. If you ask me, I think it was excitement she was looking for.

I do not recommend this novel and I have to give it a low score. There are better books about kids staying in remote cabins and anyway Cabin Fever is way better, e.g. when the main guy’s foot comes off. ...more

flag 34 likes · Like · see review

Nov 11, 2018 Hugh rated it really liked it

Shelves: modern-lit, read-2018, mm2019

A fascinating early work by Atwood, if perhaps not quite one that hits the heights of the likes of Cat's Eye, Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin.

We meet the unnamed narrator travelling north through Quebec in a car with two men and another woman. It transpires that they are two couples, going to investigate the disappearance of her father, who has been living in a remote cabin on a lake island where he has been largely self sufficient. They spend longer than planned on the island, relationships ...more

flag 34 likes · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2015 Amanda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I don't even know how to start to review this. It's hard to believe that this was just Atwood's second novel. The writing is so powerful it knocked me off my feet in places. I had an extremely emotional response to this book. I actually finished it last night but I wanted to think about it a bit before I gave it five stars. The ending almost brought it down a star but after thinking about it more I've decided that it is worth the full 5.

The story starts out with an unnamed narrator who is on a ...more

flag 29 likes · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2018 Raul Bimenyimana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women-writers

The second Atwood book I have read, and it was just as absorbing and as striking as the first, The Handmaid's Tale. Having finished The Vegetarian just before I started on this, reading this felt like a companion book to The Vegetarian. Both books have female protagonists that develop an aversion for animal flesh and human beings and later themselves and retreat into themselves but with varying repercussions.

The unnamed female protagonist, together with three others leave the city for a cabin by ...more

flag 30 likes · Like · see review

Feb 21, 2018 Shelby rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was a really interesting read. I think it would have had more of an impact on me personally if I was able to read it in a sitting or two (but, alas, life inhibits uninterrupted reading). Surfacing resonates with many other works by Atwood, such as the MaddAddam trilogy and The Edible Woman. At first the writing style bothered me with the constant commas and seemingly unending sentences, but as I got into the novel, this style to facilitate the reader's comprehension of the narrator's stream ...more

flag 28 likes · Like · see review

Sep 20, 2009 Madeline rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: the-list

I checked the copyright date on this book and found out that it was first published in 1972. Let's all pause and bow our heads to offer a silent prayer of thanks that Margaret Atwood has improved with time.

The copy I have of this book is part of a larger volume containing three Atwood novels. Because there's no plot synopsis on the back of the book or the inside of the jacket, I dove into it having no idea what it was going to be about. It took me thirty pages to figure it out. For the benefit ...more

flag 23 likes · Like · see review

Nov 14, 2013 Jim rated it really liked it

Shelves: novels, author-north-american, 20th-century, read-in-2014, xx

Margaret Atwood's second novel and one I'm reading for the first time.

Atwood digs deep into the female psyche, as well as the human psyche, probing and poking in all the dark underwater caves that the modern world has separated us from. Her unnamed protagonist is searching for her missing father in a remote area of northeast Canada. She has brought along her current lover and a married couple whom, removed from their city life in Toronto, she is able to see clearly and critically, and bit by bit ...more

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2018 Heather rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone!

This was not an easy read. The story starts out very simply with an unnamed woman who returns to her family home, a cabin in the wilderness of Quebec, Canada. This is not a happy homecoming as she had left home years earlier and has not spoken to anyone in her family since. There is the added layer of her reason for going back. She is hoping to find clues to her father's mysterious disappearance. She is accompanied by her partner, Joe, and a married couple, Anna and David.

As we go deeper into ...more

flag 20 likes · Like · see review

Aug 14, 2016 Katheryn Thompson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, first-by-author, international-fiction, four-stars, female-authors, 2016-reads, published-1970s

I just want to start by saying that I've read some strange books, but this one's definitely up there. There's only one thing I'm sure about, and that's that the writing is gorgeous. This is my first Atwood novel, and I will definitely be reading more. Beyond that, I'm not really sure what happened.
The protagonist, a young woman from whose perspective the book is told but whose name is never revealed, returns to northern Quebec to the remote island of her childhood, with her lover and two ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

May 24, 2018 Mary rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2018

Surfacing, or all the way you can be haunted - by your childhood, your parents, your marriage, your brother who may or may not have drowned before or after you were born - you may remember him, you may never have met him. Shadows and ghosts follow us. The past is never the past (I read that line somewhere. Where? I can’t remember).

This is a little bit In the Lake of the Woods and a little bit The Bell Jar. It’s bitter and broken and strange. Or it might all be PTSD from (view spoiler) ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

May 23, 2008 Reese rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: people who think boring = like totally deep, man.

Shelves: novel, fiction

I got about 2/3 of the way through this book and finally had to give up on it. Sure, the language was lovely and descriptive, but the plot just wouldn't move. There was a bit of suspense that something interesting could happen any second, but it just. never. did. I sensed that there may have been a more esoteric point to it all that I just wasn't getting yet, but I couldn't bring myself to care enough to stick with it anymore and find out, because really, if it was there, Ms. Atwood should have ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2019 GTF rated it did not like it · review of another edition

A dreary narrative from a protagonist who seems to be stuck in some sort of apathetic trance. Everything from the protagonist's childhood, relationships and occupation is totally lifeless, and what's worse is that the narrative is not following a plot line. This book only gave me a very vague idea of who the woman in the story is, and what role she plays for the people in her life.

I failed to see the depth in this novel that so many people applaud. Margaret Atwood has things to say about ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2017 Gabrielle rated it liked it

Shelves: feminist, reviewed, canadian, own-a-copy, read-in-2017

Ever-insightful Margaret Atwood, who creates flawed and unlikable characters, projects us into their heads and makes us sympathize with them. I have yet to run into an Atwood novel I didn't enjoy, but I also think that this book is not quite the same caliber as some of her later work.

A woman goes back to the small Quebec village of her childhood vacation to look for her estranged father, who was reported missing. She doesn't really want to see him, but she needs to know he is safe. She brings Ever-insightful Margaret Atwood, who creates flawed and unlikable characters, projects us into their heads and makes us sympathize with them. I have yet to run into an Atwood novel I didn't enjoy, but I also think that this book is not quite the same caliber as some of her later work.

A woman goes back to the small Quebec village of her childhood vacation to look for her estranged father, who was reported missing. She doesn't really want to see him, but she needs to know he is safe. She brings her boyfriend Joe and their friend David and Anna on this little expedition, and like any situation where four people are stuck together in the middle of nowhere, it doesn't go very well. Her relationship with her boyfriend is strained, and their friends' relationship hides its own dysfunction under a veneer of normal happiness.

That story appealed to me for so many reasons: I was on very familiar territory with her setting and her nameless main character's deep need to escape it. I was amused by the way her city friends find the small, run down village to be cute and authentic when the people living in it would have rather been anywhere than there. But city people and country-side people always treat the other like zoo animals... I underlined many interesting reflections on social awkwardness, and the struggle of the introverts and how little the behavioral expectations of women and children have changed in the last forty years. Ms. Atwood doesn't miss much, does she?

I've noticed in "The Edible Woman" that Atwood is not afraid of going deep into a woman's mind and unearth the things she thought, did or felt that were completely unacceptable for the place and time the story is set at. She did it again with "Surfacing", which takes place in the early 70's. The narrator feels detached from her family; not just her parents, but her ex-husband and her child are also beings she feels no connection to whatsoever, an unimaginable sentiment to voice back then - barely acceptable to express even now. Also like "The Edible Woman", the protagonist in this novel sees her sanity slip away slowly when the pressures of other people's expectations become unbearable and un-relatable.

The male characters in "Surfacing" are obnoxiously misogynistic: given that this was written around the same time it is set in, it makes me really angry to think that women were subjected to this sort of talk on a daily basis (from their husbands!) and that this was considered perfectly normal. You begin to sympathize with the main character's revulsion at the idea of marriage if this is what she can be expected to deal with...

"He's got this little set of rules. If I break one of them, I get punished, except he keeps changing them so I am never sure."

As I read that line, I had a thought for a friend who has been stuck in a toxic relationship for months and I wondered why it is so hard for some people to simply be respectful and honest with their partners. Plus ça change...

I can see how some people wouldn't like this kind of book: there's not much action, and it is extremely introspective, a hashing out of memories the reader can easily loose their way into. The immersive narrative puts you in the middle of this woman's inner monologue and that can get unnerving, but I enjoyed it. Atwood's prose is evocative enough to make you feel like the story is happening to you and if you don't mind feeling slightly uncomfortable at time, it's a fascinating experience.

But as it's her second published work, it's not quite as tightly weaved as her later work like "The Blind Assassin" or "Cat's Eye" and some passages are a little too abstract for me (though I sense the Virginia Woolf fan in Atwood in those passages). But it's still a great character study, pretty and gritty all at once. If you are new to Atwood, I wouldn't recommend you start there: she has more accessible works out there that make for better introduction to her talent. ...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Apr 28, 2019 Nicky rated it liked it · review of another edition

“Madness is only an amplification of what you already are.”

“It was before I was born but I can remember it as clearly as if I saw it, and perhaps I did see it: I believe that an unborn baby has its eyes open and can look out through the walls of the mother’s stomach, like a frog in a jar.”

An unnamed Canadian woman returns to her isolated home searching for her father. She is drawn back into her past memories of childhood and those she has suppressed. Gradually letting herself go back to nature, ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Feb 12, 2019 Nick Imrie rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, literary, place-canada

This is the sort of book that gives literary fiction a bad name: a story in which nothing much happens, just a collection of nasty, middle-class people being mean and spiteful, more or less subtly. One could argue that the endless ugly prose is a reflection of the protagonist's state of mind, but that doesn't make it any more bearable to read.

I suppose it's a good depiction of the self-hating slave morality of middle-class women just prior to 2nd wave feminism taking off – but really, you could ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

May 15, 2018 Emma rated it liked it

Shelves: general-fiction, read-spring18

A young woman goes home to rural Canada to search for her missing father. Throughout this short novel, we watch the narrator descend into madness. Not Atwood's finest work by any means, but it's very readable.

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Nov 10, 2018 Rebecca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries, unreliable-narrator, reviewed-for-blog, newbury-library, novellas

A young Canadian woman has returned to her French-speaking hometown, ostensibly to search for her missing father but really to search for herself. She’s an illustrator at work on a collection of Quebec folk tales, and in her past are a husband and child that she’s left behind. With her at her father’s lakeside cabin are her boyfriend Joe, whom she’s not sure she loves, and their friends David and Anna, a married couple whose dynamic is rather disturbing – David is always making demeaning ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

May 07, 2009 Donna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-novels

"To become like a little child again, a barbarian, a vandal; it was in us too, it was innate."
--Margaret Atwood, Surfacing

Surfacing would be a very interesting book to study. From a literary standpoint, it's deep, rich, and powerful. If Margaret Atwood has not yet been considered for a Pulitzer or Nobel Prize in literature (she's won pretty much every other award), it's just a matter of time.

That said, I didn't like this book. The mood, images, and themes are dark and deeply disturbing. This is ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2015 Lindsay rated it it was ok · review of another edition

An unpleasant but gripping story of a woman succumbing to psychosis.

The unnamed narrator returns to her father's home on an island in a lake in Quebec because her father has gone missing. She has brought with her her uncommunicative lover Joe and a married couple David and Anna. Her distance, depression and detachment aren't helped by being around these frankly horrible people and she goes from depressed to unstable fairly quickly.

This is a horrible story. Extremely well written, but unpleasant ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Mar 28, 2014 Nathan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was my third reading of Surfacing and I'm still not sure I totally get it. Each read has been rewarding though. It went up a star for me this time. I think this novel works a lot like a poem. It's about what you feel rather than what can be perfectly, clearly articulated.

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Apr 06, 2019 H.A. Leuschel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book is written in a 'stream-of-consciousness' type of style which encapsulates all the different levels of dense and rich inner emotional turmoil the main character experiences during a trip back home. She is accompanied by a group of friends who are meant to help her find her father, who has mysteriously disappeared from his remote home on an Island in Northern Quebec. What ensues is more than a search for a lost parent but an exploration of authenticity and identity.

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading 1001: Surfacing - Atwood	2	9	Sep 23, 2019 08:08AM
Goodreads Librari...: Another cover for Surfacing	2	23	Apr 20, 2016 12:37AM
FABClub (Female A...: Surfacing group discussion	12	38	May 06, 2015 10:43AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fiction

794 users

Cultural > Canada

189 users

See top shelves…

About Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

57,900 followers

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, ...more