The Highest Tide: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I LEARNED EARLYON that if you tell people what you see at low tide they'll think you're exaggerating or lying when you're actually just explaining..." (more)
Key Phrases: tidal life, giant squid, sea pen, Professor Kramer, Rachel Carson, Miles O'Malley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Miles O'Malley, 13-year-old insomniac, naturalist, worshipper of Rachel Carson, and dweller on the mud flats of Skookumchuck Bay, at the South end of Puget Sound near Olympia, Washington, is the irresistible center of The Highest Tide. He says, "I learned early on that if you tell people what you see at low tide they'll think you're exaggerating or lying when you're actually just explaining strange and wonderful things as clearly as you can" and "People usually take decades to sort out their view of the universe, if they bother to sort at all. I did my sorting during one freakish summer in which I was ambushed by science, fame and suggestions of the divine."

And what a summer he has! Miles, who is licensed to collect marine specimens for money, slips into his kayak late one night when he can't sleep and begins his exploratory rounds. What he sees is not the usual collectibles. He hears a deep exhale, a sound of release, and comes eye to eye with a giant squid. But, there are no giant squid in Puget Sound or anywhere around it--and when they are seen by humans, they are always dead. His discovery is confirmed by Professor Kramer, a local biologist and Miles's friend. Television cameras arrive, everyone wants to interview this small-for-his-age but very smart boy and the events of the summer begin to unfold.

Jim Lynch has an ability to tell a tale that glows on every page. He knows everything that lives in or near the water by name and habit. This knowledge and his sense of wonder at the natural world brings the reader very close to his story, both in its setting and its characters. One early morning Miles says, "...the water was so clear I could see coon-stripe shrimp ... and the bottomless bed of white clam shells ... Those shells, as unique and timeless as bones, helped me realize that we all die young, that in the life of the earth, we are houseflies, here for one flash of light." Such insights are perfectly natural coming from Miles, whose interests are not garden-variety. He has a mad crush on the mixed-up 18-year-old girl next door, a randy age-mate named Phelps, and a deep friendship with Florence, the elderly woman his mother refers to as "a crazy witch." Florence is a psychic of sorts and her powers come into play when she predicts an extremely high tide on a certain day.

All of these relationships and what is happening between Miles's parents are part of this event-filled, life-changing summer. Early on, Miles says off the top of his head, when asked by a TV reporter why a deep-sea creature has found its way to his front yard, "Maybe the earth is trying to tell us something." What the earth and the sea and the people in Miles's life are all trying to tell him is what he susses out in the days that follow--before that high tide.

This absolutely luminous first novel has all the earmarks of a classic. The Highest Tide is destined to be read, re-read, and to remain on bookshelves for the enjoyment of generations to come. --Valerie Ryan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The fertile strangeness of marine tidal life becomes a subtly executed metaphor for the bewilderments of adolescence in this tender and authentic coming-of-age novel, Lynch's first. As a precocious, undersized 13-year-old living on the shore of Puget Sound, in Washington State, Miles O'Malley has developed a consuming passion for the abundant life of the tidal flats. His simple pleasure in observing is tested and complicated over the course of a remarkable summer, when he finds a giant squid, a discovery that brings him the unwelcome attention of scientists, TV reporters and a local cult. Meanwhile, Miles's remote parents are considering a divorce; his best friend, Florence, an elderly retired psychic, is dying of a degenerative disease; his sex-obsessed buddy, Phelps, mocks his science-geek knowledge; and his desperate crush on Angie Stegner, the troubled girl next door, both inspires and humiliates him. Events build toward the date of a record high tide, and Miles slowly sorts out his place in the adult world. While occasionally Lynch packs too much into a small story, this moving, unusual take on the summers of childhood conveys a contagious sense of wonder at the variety and mystery of the natural world.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (April 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582346291
• ISBN-13: 978-1582346298
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #237,626 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Explaining Strange and Wonderful Things", November 4, 2005

By	Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: The Highest Tide: A Novel (Hardcover)

Jim Lynch's extraordinary first novel centers around a runty thirteen year old boy who knows more than the local marine biologist about the teeming life in the mud flats of Puget Sound and its coves. Narrator Miles O'Malley is an insomniac who takes his battered kayak into the sound at night while his parents and the rest of the town sleep. He collects unusual specimens for aquariums and collectors, and digs for clams with his friend Phelps to sell to local restaurants. In the middle of the night, Miles hears the final exhalation of a dying giant squid. His discovery of the enormous creature never before found on the shores of North America prompts a rush of media attention. At first, no one questions how Miles managed to find the squid in the middle of the night despite his poorly fabricated lie, but when he discovers other non-native sea life and anomalies in the sea and tidal pools, he becomes an object of local fascination. Miles just wants to remain invisible. He is neglected by his parents, who have their own problems, and he struggles with his awkward crush on Angie, an eighteen-year-old, body-pierced girl who plays bass in a grunge band.

Miles is an avid reader of Rachel Carson and her moving descriptions of the ocean, but Lynch, through the voices of Miles, offers his own memorable descriptions of the life, both human and otherwise, that depends on Puget Sound. The narrative voice, with its honesty, wry humor, and poetic language, distinguishes this novel from so many other coming-of-age stories. Insightful without being dogmatic, sensitive without being melodramatic, the prose finds the perfect balance and pitch. Not unlike the earthquake that rattles Olympia--"it shook us just long enough and hard enough to make us feel helpless . . . and just short enough and mercifully enough not to kill us"--the writing makes the reader question her assumptions about the uniformity of marine life and of personal experience.

With this impressive debut, Lynch proves himself a writer to watch. His confident style guides the reader through an odd yet believable world where sea stars can be of any color and thirteen-year-old boys can befriend judges, psychics, and cult leaders. Readers will finish this novel with a sigh not unlike that of the giant squid marooned on the beach.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Even science goes haywire sometimes, Miles", September 4, 2005

By	M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Highest Tide: A Novel (Hardcover)

Set against the backdrop of Washington's Puget Sound, The Highest Tide is an exquisite coming of age story of that uses the mysteries of the life aquatic as a backdrop. Miles O'Malley is a special thirteen year old who has a talent for identifying all sorts of strange sea creatures.

Miles is somewhat of a child protégé, a speed reader from an early age, who loves to quote beloved nature writer Rachel Carson, he seems more obsessed with identifying the creatures of the tidal flats outside his home than mucking around with boys his own age. His encyclopedic knowledge of the ocean enables him to collect specimens that he sells to aquariums and to local restaurants in Olympia.

All that changes the summer before his 14th birthday, when Miles hears a strange sound. He soon finds himself face-to-face with a giant squid; a species that doesn't live anywhere near Puget Sound. Almost overnight, he's discovering other rarely seen sea creatures in the tidal flats. Suddenly, the young boy is thrust into the spotlight, quickly hailed by his community as a local hero, perhaps even a prophet.

Lately however, the winds of change have been bothering Miles. His working class parents have been hinting at divorce, His mother feels as though she's stranded in her tiny stilted house with an un-ambitious baseball fanatic who still barhops with is high school pals.

His elderly neighbor and best friend, the psychically inclined Florence, is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's, and it's not that he can't imagine losing her, but her growing feebleness fits into the fact that he senses that everything is about to shift beneath him.

Miles notices that the bay itself is seemingly shifting into something else - "a trophy view for people rich enough to build houses on the Sunset Estates." He decides that his goal for the rest of the summer is to stop things from changing," to keep my bay, as I knew it intact."

But it doesn't help that Miles is obsessed with local bi-polar girl Rachel Carson. And that fellow friend and partner in crime, Phelps, while intent to impart healthy discussions about "Christy Decker's rack," also nags Miles about sex. The tide begins to rise, just as Florence predicted, and Miles soon finds himself sought after by scientists, journalists, and a group of strange, new-age cult members.

Of course, the young man takes most of this in his stride, as his coming-of-age cleverly coincides with a period of tumult in the ocean and the world around him. Miles never feels sadness on the bay, where the seashells, are as "unique and timeless as bones," where life is much denser in the sea than the air, and where the ocean spits stuff up on the beach, sending us postcards that we don't know how to read yet.

The prose is beautiful: "The albino moon so close and bright it seemed to give off heat," and the narrative philosophy simple and wise: "the wonders of the ocean show that we all die young, that in the life of the earth, we are houseflies, here for one flash of light." Author, Jim Lynch, has not only written a sensitive story of a responsive and remarkable young boy, but he also writes so expertly about the world of the tides.

It's a world where life descends into everything, every crack, every shell, and even between grains of sand. "Life on top of life, barnacles and limpets stuck to oyster shells, clinging to each other, piggybacking on larger shells and barnacles on top of everything." This crisp and clean world utterly captures Miles, and Lynch, through his delicate and intuitive storytelling, ensures that we are captured too. Mike Leonard September 05.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Novel That Captures the Beauty of the Ocean and the Challenges of Adolescence, June 8, 2006

By	Bart King (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Highest Tide: A Novel (Hardcover)

I read this book on a recommendation, and didn't quite realize what I was getting into. That was fine, as THE HIGHEST TIDE turned out to be a welcome surprise on a number of levels. However, for those on the outside looking in, it may be useful to know that this book is prototypically "Pacific Northwest." In this case, that means that this novel is an example of very well-written (inspiring, even) environmentalist fiction.

Given some of its frank sexual content, it is a bit of a surprise that this is sort of a Young Adult (YA) book. While the story of young teen Miles O'Malley and his best friend, the over-revved Phelps, will appeal to high school students as well as adults. (And speaking of adults, true to classic YA form, virtually all of the grown-ups in HIGHEST TIDE are useless.)

If you want a mini-synopsis: The book is set in the Puget Sound and explores the eventually fantastic adventures of Miles, a young man fixated on marine biology who has to deal with divorce, girls, and death. It's very funny; one of the laugh-out-loud sections is the dialogue between Miles and Phelps concerning a sexy model. The book is quite touching as well; all in all, it's quite a successful and impressive outing. Nice work, Jim Lynch!