Customer Reviews

High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have only a few pages to go with the book of essays "High Tide in Tucson". It is written by Barbara Kingsolver who wrote a book on Oprah's list called the "Poisonwood Bible". That is still on my list to read. The essays are opinion of the author and she is of a very liberal political bent. (She actually left the country to live in Spain because she disagreed with the Persian Gulf War.I was serving in the military at the time of the Gulf War and honestly agree with many of the points she makes. )
I have really enjoyed this book although I do not agree with her all of her opinons. You can tell she puts much thought into her opinions before she makes them. I enjoy reading others opinions even when they disagree with mine if they really make me think and she does.
I wouldn't have picked up this book on my own, but my girlfriend sent it to me. I enjoy fiction but seldom am interested in essays. I am so glad she did. Ms Kingsolver has really made me examine my opinions on violence against women in the media and I think I will be choosing different movies and books in the future because of her. Having my mind "stretched" was a very positive experience.

If my fellow writers, who struggle with the modern essay format, want to read an example of good writing, this would be a great place to start. Barbara Kingsolver, already famous for Beantrees, Pigs in Heaven, etc., lets loose with this collection of 25 essays on issues as diverse as hermit crabs, political activism, and vegetarianism. Her exquisite and thoughtful language persists throughout as, trained as a naturalist, she links minutae in the natural world with the more close-to-home issues of parenting, family, honesty, and her political views. Some of her best writing can be found in this collection.
Top rating.

Barbara Kingsolver's collection of essays, High Tide In Tucson, is a truly life affirming, touching, true, poetic, real, view of life, nature, the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom, and community.

If you enjoy the novels of Barbara Kingsolver, you'll enjoy the essays in this collection. Well written, poetic-prose that is truly touching! As in all Kingsolver's books, even if you don't agree with the conclusions she comes to, it's ok. You don't feel preached at, she acknowledges the diversity of life, that we all have different, legitimate, opinions about all things. For example, I personally do not believe that science and biology are infallible, I am a Creationist. Ms. Kingsolver clearly believes in evolution and makes no secret that she believes that evolution is a "scientific fact." That's fine! It doesn't threaten me that we have different, legitimate, beliefs. The point is that we both, as she states, "risk belief." When she describes the glory of nature, the earth, and the Natural World, she gives credit to "Mother Nature," or "Mother Earth," or "Natural Selection," while I give credit to "God, the Creator." This is what life's all about. This is what this collection of essays is about, having an opinion and explaining it thoroughly, and listening to others opinions. It's "high tide" we must live this life we're given for the best, the best we know how, and not let another person's disagreement with us stop us. We must acknowledge and learn about the past, and honor the future as well. So, fill up the atomic bomb silos with concrete to be excavated later, collect shells on the beach, keep a journal, tell lies, honor life and nature and the earth, don't turn away from painful things in this chaotic world, look, acknowledge, help, believe, hope, it's high tide.

The essays in this book speak to the troubles of today's world because they are timeless. I feel like standing on the roof top and offering Barbara Kingsolver's wisdom and love of life and all it encompasses to all who pass by. The essays are a wake up call without being strident while at the same time a salve to my soul and a voice of reason. Let alone the fact that Kingsolver is a fabulous writer.

Somehow for me, it is the time to immerse myself in Kingsolver's words and ideas. I also re-read "Small Wonder" and I'm now savoring "Animal Dreams". I can only suggest that other readers might enjoy her books for the first time or second or third.

I love this book!

There are certain books that are 'north stars' and that guide us in uneven times; this book is my north star. I have returned to this book over and over again at different times in an effort to find my way. Ms. Kingsolver's insightful observations about life in many areas - children, violence - always lead me to re-examine my thinking and to look at things in a little different way.

This is the first book I buy for friends who are facing crises in their lives. I recommend this book to anyone who is needing a thoughtful, fresh look at life, it will become a friend.

Kingsolver holds reign neck and neck with Annie Dillard as two of my favorite naturalist writers and essayists. Kingsolver holds her own as a novelist. In this collection of essays, rewritten and expanded versions, in many cases, from what has been previously published in various magazines, Kingsolver's skill and talent as an essayist shimmers with brilliance and sheer entertainment. Even when she is teaching us a lesson and hammering it home.

Topics have wide range, covering nature, art, values and ethics, human nature and its foibles, politics, and travels. Whether she is pondering the biological clocks of hermit crabs or espousing her views on violence and objectification of women on the silver screen, or taking the reader along on the harsh realities of a not so glamorous book tour, her language is lush and poetic, flowing and vibrant, clever and memorable. I have been quoting her words to anyone who will listen ever since reading the book, and thinking back to it as a kind of measuring stick for my personal observations of daily life.

So what moved you to begin such a boycott of violence in movies? a friend asked me over lunch yesterday. We had been talking about popular contemporary movies, and why I had made sometimes surprising - to others - choices. And it hit me. While my inclination had been moving in that direction for some time now, it was Kingsolver's essay, "Careful What You Let In the Door," that had pushed me into a conscious awareness of how my viewing choices affected every other part of my life, the daily and even seemingly miniscule choices I make. The results of such choices have been almost immediately apparent to me - as was now my choice to steer clear. The desensitization I had experienced toward atrocities in the news, to the daily disrespect I witness in various human interactions and my regretful tolerance of it, hardly registering as a bump in my path, was lifting. Newly aware, I have been surfacing as if from a deep and dumb sleep.

Kingsolver writes about her literary profession that writers may not write with politics in mind, yet "good art is political." As is hers. Words can and should move us, good art should change us, and a good writer is a person who wields a pen more powerful than any sword.

In this particular essay, Kingsolver explores the function of violence in art (or media in general), visual or literary. Too often, she notes (my lunch partner nodding in agreement), such violence is perpetrated against women. "It turns out," writes Kingsolver about an inadvertant movie choice, "I'd rented the convincing illusion of helpless, attractive women being jeopardized, tortured, or dead, for no good reason I could think of after it was over." Pondering this, she concludes that violence in movies or video games (or various other formats) too often appears merely for its sensationalist effect, while in literature a writer has the ability to expand upon a violent scene to fully show its consequences. Because violence always has consequences. It is the absence of those consequences in our daily media diet, too often our entertainment choices, separate from the realm of reality, that has led to a society that hardly blinks at its constant appearance upon the screens of our minds. All of which, she argues, with time turns us into hardened and numb creatures, willing to not only view violence, but to tolerate it, potentially even to participate in it.

So an essay moves us to change our viewing habits. Art creates positive change. But Kingsolver can just as easily write an essay that makes us laugh, as in her story of joining a literary rock band, allowing herself to look the fool for our sympathetic pleasure. Or her struggles as a parent. Although in "Somebody's Baby," her message again takes on a ponderous seriousness in considering how little we care for our youngest generations, even while we claim to be a family oriented society. Her call to us in this essay is to consider that it is not just the parent's job to care for the child, but it is the obligation and heart-calling to the community at large, to the entire nation, to care for and nurture our young. We are, she writes, raising Presidents-in-training, yet our attitude is "every family for itself."

What I love about Kingsolver's essays is that they are beautifully written, literary works of art. Yet each and every one carries a deeper meaning, a message, a call to arms, even those written with the relish of humor. It is art with consequence.

This collection of essays is nothing less than an ecstatic celebration of life, expressed through exceptional writing. Kingsolver's perspective is multi-dimensional: the perspective of a scientist, writer, and rock 'n roll keyboardist. The attention she brings to the natural world in her writing accomplishes what good writing should: it expands the universe and brings critical attention to things we might otherwise take for granted or never have even thought about. These essays are human and believable. I particularly admire Kingsolver's ability to weave her belief-system (her feelings and thoughts about alternative familes, feminism, sustainability and the environment) into her writing without apology. Kingsolver writes about Hermit crabs, her daughter, a trip to the Canary Islands, writing, West Africa and other phenomena of the human condition. Anyone interested in creative nonfiction -- or life, for that matter -- shoudl read this book.

This book of essays reads like a novel. From the very first story about a hermit crab who finds himself in the desert of Tuscon, which is an allogory for those of us who find ourselves displaced at times, to the hopeful last essay in which the author writes about her new life, this is an inspiring book to read. It becomes one of those books that you give to friends because you know it will touch them in some way. Barbara Kingsolver is an exceptional writer with insight into our hearts and minds

I am an admitted, biased Barbara Kingsolver fan. I loved her books, Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven and Animal Dreams. I bought High Tide in Tuscon in an effort to learn to like short stories after my efforts with Alice Munro failed miserably. (I guess I'm the only one who never figured out how any of her stories ended. . . or did they?) Ms. Kingsolver has made a believer out of me. She provides a lot of food for thought while she "illustrates" what may be "simple" truths. I take time between stories to savor her thoughts. My favorite short story is "In case you ever want to go home again," about returning to her hometown after first getting published. We can all relate to the insecurity and enjoy the pleasure she took from being Homecoming Queen for a day. I liked what she had to say about the art of writing. She believes that the secret is "attitude," that it's "hope" and a matter of keeping a clear fix on what you believe is true.

This is my first look at Barbara Kingsolver. I don't read a lot of modern literature, but I like essays and memoirs. So when I saw that Kingsolver had written two volumes of essays and she is a member of the Rock-Bottom Remainders, I had to take a chance. After reading the first of the two volumes, I am a fan.

High Tide in Tucson is a better than some collections because Kingsolver has rewritten many of the pieces. Some of the essays were originally magazine articles, so she was able to rewrite them without the length and editorial restrictions imposed by the original publication. And she arranged them so that they flow, if not exactly like a story, at least so that the sequence makes sense, rather than just a random selection. She warns us ahead of time that these need to be read in order -- no dipping into them here and there.

Kingsolver writes here about the desert, her year in the Canary Islands, a visit to Benin, being a parent, love and divorce and new love, and writing. She also covers war, wildlife, and how she came to be the keyboardist for a bad rock group. Even though these essays are more than ten years old, they don't seem dated at all. Even the piece on protesting the first Persian Gulf War is pertinent.

I especially enjoyed Kingsolver's writing on writing. She loves being a writer and everything about it. Except for book tours. Her piece on a long and dreadful book tour is one of my favorites, and the funniest. Her decision to pack light and take only a minimal wardrobe gets her into trouble several times.

Although I probably won't run out and read her fiction, I am looking forward to the second volume of Barbara Kingsolver essays, Small Wonder.