Surfacing (novel)

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Surfacing is a novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1972.

[edit] Plot summary

The book tells the story of a woman who returns to her hometown in Canada to find her disappeared father. Accompanied by her lover and another married couple, the unnamed protagonist meets her past in her childhood house, recalling events and feelings, while trying to find clues for her father's mysterious disappearance. Little by little, the past overtakes her and drives her into the realm of wildness and madness.

The novel grapples with notions of national and gendered identity.

'Surfacing' is the story of a psychotic episode. The protagonist's mental reasoning deteriorates sharply as the story unfolds from initial signs of mental health issues to a full-blown psychosis. Because Atwood has written in the first person we are told much of the narrative through monologues, and experience events through the thoughts of the protagonist. This allows for a very detailed and personal portrayal of a mind 'undoing itself'. Although there are nuances in the protagonist's thoughts that suggest mental problems in early chapters, the narrative takes a decisive plunge on page 67. At this point we learn that the protagonist has had a severe trauma in her early adult life, as she sits trying to piece together her past: "then static, like a jumped track". This discovery that she is unable to identify any strong narrative themes in her own memories causes her substanial worry. She finds that she cannot trust her own thoughts, for instance she interrupts her own thinking with a retort: "That's a lie..." This inability to 'know which is the right thought' is profoundly psychotic and from that point on the narrative and the thought processes of the protagonist become disturbingly uncoordinated. There are probably few novels that have dealt with this subject matter with such accuracy and attention to psychological detail.

[edit] External links

• On: Margaret Atwood's 'Surfacing' by Richard Cheadle
• Margaret Atwood at the Literary Encyclopedia
• After Nature, an article by Jill Dawson