Surfacing reminded me of an environmentalist version of The Edible Woman, it was Atwood’s second book so it still had that raw feel of her earlier books, but I didn’t love it like I loved The Edible Woman, unfortunately!
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It’s a bit strange, a sort of stream-of-consciousness novel about a woman undertakes a journey with two ‘friends’ to try to solve the mysterious disappearance of her father. It sounds fairly straight-forward but it degenerates into something very, very weird...
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I didn’t connect to any of the characters, I’m normally all for unlikeable or flawed characters, but I found every one except the narrator pretty much unbearable. Parts two and three were better for me than part one, there was less of them and more exploration of the main character’s mental state - by far the most compelling aspect of this book!
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I loved how Atwood explores the way the mind tries to protect itself from difficult memories, but then the narrator’s defensive strategies got weird, as I mentioned. The environmental aspect begins to take over and I just didn’t feel engaged with the direction the plot took.
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Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this one to people just looking to start out with Atwood, but it does have some interesting themes and there’s always guaranteed to be some stellar, introspective writing where she’s concerned!