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Surfacing
 
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Surfacing (Paperback)

by Margaret Atwood (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £5.48 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Surfacing + Lady Oracle + The Edible Woman
Total RRP: £26.97
Price For All Three: £16.76

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  • This item: Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

    In stock.
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  • Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood

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  • The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New Ed edition (21 July 1994)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0860680649
  • ISBN-13: 978-0860680642
  • Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 12.6 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 27,594 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #12 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Atwood, Margaret
    #17 in  Books > Fiction > World > Canadian

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Product Description

Review

'One of the most important novels of the twentieth century...utterly remarkable' NEW YORK TIMES 'Utterly absorbing and satisfying' SUNDAY TIMES 'A deep understanding of human behaviour' MARILYN FRENCH

NEW YORK TIMES

'One of the most important novels of the twentieth century...utterly remarkable'
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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Slow and powerful., 10 Oct 2003
The story of a Canadian woman, newly divorced and returning to her family home to explore her past and future isn't the first thing I'd run to read. However, I'm very glad I acquired this book and read it cover to cover. I found the beginning of the story slow and confusing - it felt to me as though the first three chapters that another author might include, had been chopped away to land the reader straight away at the point of important story flow.

As I read on I found myself slightly exasperated at the pace, and the bewilderment I felt, trying to work everything out at once. This may well say more about me as a reader than the book, though! But by the end I was completely hooked and reread the last few pages because it was SUCH a satisfying ending. It's not especially neat - you won't be told what the characters will be doing for the next two hundred years. But that's not the style of this anyway - and I don't care to know! The plot for the 'heroine' was sufficiently resolved and I came away from this book calm, impressed and ready to read some of Atwood's other books which previously I've sidled round as "a bit hard". Well-worth the time spent on reading.

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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Absorbing Depths of Surfacing, 5 Mar 2002
A first-person narrative of a woman diseffected by the casual destructive savagery of humanity, Surfacing is essential and thought-provoking reading, though probably too subtle and bleak to find itself listed among Atwood's more famous and popular novels.
In flight from the dreary confines of human conventions and institutions, the protagonist is slowly 'becoming-animal' as she becomes enchanted with the natural order of the wild. It is a narrative that would appeal to any fans of Angela Carter's lycanthrope (werewolf) stories, as Atwood attempts to express the appeal of being beast (of feeling properly alive) rather than merely subsisting, dulled & compromised, in the hollow roles society offers us.
The narrative is vivid, politics and personalities are easily familiar to us - though they are never one-dimensional or stereotypical - which is important because we are meant to empathise with how the protagonist becomes estranged from her companions as well as civilisation.* They are to read her 'sortie' as her going mad, we are to understand the reasons for her outlook and for her breakdown and withdrawl into the wilderness.

This is an accessible but serious novel you'd probably want to purchase for someone who has already read one or two of the more celebrated Atwood titles - but in time it will stand out as one of the most evocative and satisfying...

(* Note: this isn't in any way to imply that 'Surfacing' is somehow a cross between 'The Good Life' and 'Grizzly Adams'!!)

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9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful quest for identity, 17 May 2002
By A Customer
Surfacing is the powerful quest of the anonymous protagonist for identity. You will not be able to put this book down!
Atwood's female protagonist returns to her childhood home to search for her missing father, but embarks on a turbulent journey of self - discovery. Atwood's novel is full of powerful symbolism and is a compulsive page - turner. A must read postcolonial women's text!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic exploration of canadian identity
I love this novel as it explores Canadian identity through a poetic use of prose. Nothing really happens but its just a pleasurable read. Read more
Published 6 months ago by R. Harries

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book.
This was my first experience of Atwood, bought on a whim after a vague recommendation, and I was not entirely sure what to expect. Read more
Published 6 months ago by T. Boardman

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
After reading 'A Handmaid's Tale' I chose to read another book of Atwood's. I was thoroughly disappointed, I could not get into it at all, there was very little dialect which made... Read more
Published 17 months ago by jessica maxwell-muller

5.0 out of 5 stars woman becoming whole....
for all of us -this book can allow growth to unfold. for me personally it is a reminder to keep asking myself the questions - who am I ? Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2007 by A. Barton

5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing and intelligent
Firstly, a note to my fellow reviewers: it is bad form to give away the ending of books in review - despite your own personal views, it's not up to you to spoil it for other... Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2007 by Jack Barnes

5.0 out of 5 stars A level studies
I too, agree that if I had not been studying this book, I don't think I would have understood it to the same extent I did. Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2007 by Hayley Brown

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book (on hindsight)
I also read this book during my English A-Level studies. I have to agree that it is a hard book to understand but, now that a few years has lapsed since I read it, I do still... Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2007 by Lydia

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Like many other students, I have just finished studying Atwood's 'Surfacing' novel for my English Language and Literature A level. Read more
Published on 15 May 2006 by L. Erlandsen

4.0 out of 5 stars engrossing human tragedy
This book relates to readers that the shallow amoung us would deem 'crazy.' It deals with issues of true human importance, that are all too often found in the ordinary... Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2005 by Aulaith

4.0 out of 5 stars Margerett Attwood surfacing
This book relates to readers that the shallow amoung us would deem 'crazy.' It deals with issues of true human importance, that are all too often found in the ordinary... Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2005 by Aulaith

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