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A review by irreverentreader
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
3.0
There isn't much in this book that I'm inclined to like. But somehow Atwood still manages to score at least a 5/10 on atmosphere and writing capabilities alone.
Like many of the books I've read during the 1960/1970's period there was a huge trend towards opacity and haziness in storytelling. While not even remotely my favorite writing tool, it does work in Surfacing. It creates a level of tension in the story that is only emphasized by the setting: deep in the remote backwoods of the Canadian wilderness. Throughout this book I had a sense of discomfort and dread as the narrator both tries to search for her missing father and come to terms with the undefined trauma that happened to her earlier in life.
But for all that build up, there never was a real payoff. Instead, the mystery of her father is abruptly resolved and only causes the narrator, who is already in the downward spiral of madness, to fall further into it. But it's a madness that feels melodramatic. While the writing was difficult to decipher when I first started reading, I got used to it, and a poetic beauty emerged from the disjointed nature of it. But in Part III, Atwood goes overboard with it. It becomes overdone and overworked; it pushes the limits of belief, and it stops offering itself up as an art form and slides into superficial ornamentality. Honestly, it didn't surprise me to learn that when she wrote this book, she was a professor at York University--the style and slight whiff of pretentiousness surrounding this book, when compared to her other works, reeks of MFA style writing.
I was also bothered by the side characters in this book. They are truly horrible humans that I wanted to cringe away from. In a way, that speaks to Atwood's ability to craft characters that feel so real and gritty, but it also made me wonder how the protagonist ever met them and became friends with them-- because like so much of her shadowy past, that is never covered or clarified. For me, that is a constant theme: this book could have used a lot more clarity.
If you are new to Atwood, I would advise skipping this one and starting with The Handmaid's Tale, The Maddaddam Series, The Penelopiad, or Alias Grace. This is surely in the bottom half of her works
Like many of the books I've read during the 1960/1970's period there was a huge trend towards opacity and haziness in storytelling. While not even remotely my favorite writing tool, it does work in Surfacing. It creates a level of tension in the story that is only emphasized by the setting: deep in the remote backwoods of the Canadian wilderness. Throughout this book I had a sense of discomfort and dread as the narrator both tries to search for her missing father and come to terms with the undefined trauma that happened to her earlier in life.
But for all that build up, there never was a real payoff. Instead, the mystery of her father is abruptly resolved and only causes the narrator, who is already in the downward spiral of madness, to fall further into it. But it's a madness that feels melodramatic. While the writing was difficult to decipher when I first started reading, I got used to it, and a poetic beauty emerged from the disjointed nature of it. But in Part III, Atwood goes overboard with it. It becomes overdone and overworked; it pushes the limits of belief, and it stops offering itself up as an art form and slides into superficial ornamentality. Honestly, it didn't surprise me to learn that when she wrote this book, she was a professor at York University--the style and slight whiff of pretentiousness surrounding this book, when compared to her other works, reeks of MFA style writing.
I was also bothered by the side characters in this book. They are truly horrible humans that I wanted to cringe away from. In a way, that speaks to Atwood's ability to craft characters that feel so real and gritty, but it also made me wonder how the protagonist ever met them and became friends with them-- because like so much of her shadowy past, that is never covered or clarified. For me, that is a constant theme: this book could have used a lot more clarity.
If you are new to Atwood, I would advise skipping this one and starting with The Handmaid's Tale, The Maddaddam Series, The Penelopiad, or Alias Grace. This is surely in the bottom half of her works