Surfacing follows a young woman's journey back to her childhood home in Canada to discover what became of her missing father. She makes her journey with her lover, Joe, and a married couple whom she considers "friends" even though she has only known them for two months. They have a car and are, therefore, her ride back to her secluded village. She grew up on an island many miles away from the village without electricity or running water, which intrigues her city friends.
We learn quickly that she doesn't want to see her missing father, but to only make sure that he is safe. Through her inner monologue, we also learn that her mother has already passed away some time before and that she herself was married but is no longer, hence why she hasn't visited her childhood home.
I'm done with that narrative only because it's so much more complicated than that. For such a short novel, it's incredibly full of unfinished thoughts and convoluted memories. We are initially led to believe that the narrator married young and had a baby, which she says was never her own but was always "his." Then, the subsequent divorce, which we are also told led to her estrangement from her parents. However, as the story moves forward, she (has no name) discovers that she has been supressing the truth within her own mind. Instead, she had an affair with a married professor at her art school and got pregnant. He, in turn, "helped" her get an abortion, claiming it was the only way. Broken-hearted and broken-minded, she creates a false story in her mind and begins to believe it.
At this point in the novel, our narrator begins to go crazy and that's where Ms. Atwood lost me. The narrator tells the reader that basically she is metamorphosing into some other being, an animal, with fur and no longer understands language. Of course, this also stems back to her secluded childhood growing up in a French speaking community where her parents spoke only English - an obvious barrier for her language skills to develop as she developed into an adult. Our narrator becomes a crazed animal trying to become one with her surroundings, refusing to have anything to do with man-made items of any sort. Finally, she begins to come back to her senses and grow back into her own skin, so to speak.
I have enjoyed many Margaret Atwood novels. She also creates an intriguing plot and narrative. She rarely repeats herself on the subject matter directly, although she may revisit science fiction, feminism, etc. as a whole throughout her novels. I never know what to expect from her and that makes me enjoy her work. When I read Oryx and Crake for the first time, I didn't really like it. The second time I read it, I loved it. I enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale the first time around. This time, I'm going to have to admit that I doubt that I will read this novel again.
I disliked all of the characters who accompanied our narrator on her trip. No wonder she went crazy! They used sex as a manipulative tool, spoke of those "Yanks" (they were Canadian) in an aggressive, yet uneducated way (obviously, keeping up with the times of the novel). They were loud-mouthed and stupid and rarely acted in a way that made them likable. Sometimes, I caught myself feeling sorry for Joe, the narrator's lover. He was able to show emotion but to me, he was much like a grown man with teenage angst emotions instead of matured emotions.
Then of course there is the narrator herself and her repression of her early young adult trauma, i.e. abortion. She tells us that "he" claimed it was legal. I understand her repression of the truth and her inevitable break down when she realized what really did happen. What I don't understand is her belief of the story she made up in place of the truth. I can understand completely forgetting what happened, but fabricating a lie in her mind that she based her entire existence on shows that she was emotionally unstable long before she ever left the island to begin her grown up life. I just don't find her a believable character, unless of course she's a mental patient...which she may very well be after her incredulous metamorphis.
Sorry Ms. Atwood. Your second published novel leaves me feeling empty and not quite right inside. Maybe that's what you wanted?
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