Books: Out of the Woods

SURFACING by MARGARET ATWOOD

224 pages. Simon & Schuster. $6.95.

As some other people are connoisseurs of wine, Margaret Atwood is a connoisseur of pain. She is acquainted with vintages. She can identify all the best anguishes blindfolded.

But even a connoisseur must specialize within the specialty. In this novel

Miss Atwood continues where she left off in The Edible Woman, chronicling the particular pains of being female in the '70s.

Her nameless narrator is Canadian, like herself, and a bit younger—in her late 20s. A commercial artist making a perfunctory living by illustrating children's...