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Surfacing

Margaret Atwood

Discussion: Books Set in North America

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Books Set in North America

* Authors from Canada or Mexico
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 6 posts · 339 views

last updated Jul 11, 2022 01:15PM

Canada
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 41 posts · 1178 views

last updated Jan 11, 2025 09:36PM

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What Members Thought

Dec 16, 2021 Fee rated it it was amazing

Stunning writing from Margaret Atwood in this beautiful, multi-faceted meditation on relationships, memory, and personal identity, as an unnamed female narrator travels with friends to an island in the remote Canadian wilderness in search of her father, who has disappeared without a trace. Perfectly paced and tiptoeing around the supernatural, this is my new favourite Atwood.

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Nov 19, 2012 Greer rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2012-books

An estranged daughter returns to the isolated Canadian island where she grew up to search for her missing father, accompanied by her lover and a couple who are into playing mind games with each other and everyone else. If I hadn't known this was one of Atwood's earlier novels, I would have guessed as much. This book has all the elements of a good novel -- beautiful prose, evocative descriptions of the setting, intelligent characterization, emotional tension -- but the end result is a soupy mess. ...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Amanda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2009-reads, fiction, total-read

Why, oh why, did it take me this long to discover Atwood? Her books are amazing, if sometimes very hard to read. This one reminds me of The Bell Jar, and there is an obvious parallel of a woman struggling with a mental breakdown.

But, as with all of her novels, it’s more than that. She covers many themes of patriarchy and oppression, weaving hints of them through the story in subtle (and very obvious) ways. I love the way the story spirals to a conclusion such that only as the main character brea ...more

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