Surfacing

I've always been a fan of Margaret Atwood's books. Even the ones that I liked less (which are few), I can always appreciate the craft in her words and her ability to tell a story.  

Surfacing is a dark tale about a young woman returning to her family's cabin after her father has gone missing and is presumed dead. Being in a place that is so familiar to the main character (who remains nameless throughout the book), she recalls childhood memories and it soon becomes evident that the protagonist's true mission in the book is a journey of self discovery. Since this book was written and published in the early 70's, Surfacing also reflects its time and place, as it is also a novel about a woman's identity in a man's world (a feminist reading), and Canadian identity in an America's world. 

After I read the opening of the book describing the remoteness of the cabin with the set up of the two couples cut off from the world in a place with no running water or electricity, it suggested to me a cliche horror situation, and I think there might be something to this. There is often an atmosphere that feels threatening or as if doom is around the corner. This could be because we are seeing everything through the protagonist's eyes and it is simply a reflection of her state of mind. At one point she believes that her father might return to the cabin to frighten them in what could only be a deranged state. While this does not occur, it does foreshadow where the protagonist is headed. At another juncture in the book, they come across the body of a dead heron strung up on display. The protagonist is deeply angered by this, blaming the American's who use the area for recreation, and the tone has been set while we follow the couples as they set up camp for the night. Such moments continue throughout the book. In many ways, we are invited to look at this wilderness space as being dark and dangerous. If it reflects the protagonist's own feelings as she goes deeper into her past, it is not surprising that her relationships with her partner, Joe, and her married friends, David and Anna, slowly but inevitably unravel. If much of the book can be read as a reflection of the main character's state of mind, then what is unravelling is the main character.  

Where the book ends up I won't give away, but I can say that where the protagonist starts out, believing herself as someone who has been powerless, as if a victim, she ends up (or surfaces) feeling empowered and stronger; a woman more certain of who she is in the world.