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| The Highest Tide: A Novel | 
| Author: Jim Lynch
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $1.00
You Save: $22.95 (96%)
New (31) Collectible (6) from $1.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  59 reviews
Sales Rank: 356350
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 1582346054
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781582346052
ASIN: 1582346054
Publication Date: September 8, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch March 2, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Author Jim Lynch spins a story about Miles O'Malley, a 13 year-old living on Puget Sound in Washington state. Miles explores the tidal flats looking for exotic ocean life and finds a rare sea creature which makes him a target for the media and for wackos who hail him as a prophet. Somehow Miles must cope with his sudden fame and find a way to survive adolescence. Miles must deal with his fame, his relationship with the elderly Florence, his feelings for Angie, and his parents' separation. Lynch produces an in-depth look at an adolescent who is very kind and caring and in many ways very mature for his age. The characters are well-developed, but the overuse of description makes for a sluggish read. Oh, and there is some profanity and mild sexual content.
 Couldn't put it down January 10, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I loved this book! Being from the Puget Sound area, I really enjoyed discovering this new world that exists just outside my doorstep. I felt like I was discovering just as much as our hero of the story. A must read for Pacific Northwest natives, as well as anyone that lives near the water or loves the water! The coming of age story was inspiring, encouraging, and your heart goes out to this little explorer of the bay, of the world, and of himself.
 implausible protagonist, unkind author January 1, 2007
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
I enjoyed the descriptions of intertidal life on Puget Sound. I grew up on Puget Sound, took Marine Science from Mr. Craig MacGowan at Garfield High School in Seattle, and now teach middle school Life Science on the Oregon Coast (though with more of a terrestrial bias). I sympathize with the main character, Miles, as someone who wishes others would pay more attention to natural history, and as someone who relates better to adults.
I think Jim Lynch would have been more successful with Miles if he had been narrating as an adult, reflecting on what it was like to be 13, like Ivan Doig did with Jick McCaskill in _English Creek_. Miles spouts facts and trivia like an encyclopedia, and even though he feels like an adult trapped inside an adult body, still, he would be more believable as an adult. None of the natural historians I know with the expertise Jim Lynch has imparted to Miles are under the age of 40. It takes a very long time to develop encyclopedic knowledge like this. The novel didn't strike me so much as a coming-of-age novel at all, because Miles was not believable as a thirteen year old (and I know many 13 year old boys, many of whom are very bright and very unhappy about being surrounded by other kids who don't understand them). Miles sounds more like Jim Lynch reciting the research he had to do to write the book. Having a crush on his former babysitter and his air-guitar playing friend feel like a cut-and-paste job on how to create a thirteen year old. Actually, much of the book feels grafted together.
I also thought Miles' descriptions of peripheral characters as more of the author's unkind assessment of women's appearances: "Her eyes were so far apart she looked like a hammerhead shark," "...with a mole so close to her mouth I wanted to get her a napkin..." "with so many varicose veins a professor could have conducted an anatomy lesson," Evergreen students as "lumpy women", and so on. The author wrote on his website for the book that he enjoyed writing from the perspective of someone who is not jaded or cynical, but if this is the best the author can do, I would argue that Miles is jaded. At least Jim Lynch is. There are pictures of him on his website, too, so you, reader, can judge whether or not his assessment of other human imperfections is fair.
The climax, the highest tide, was confused and rushed and not important to the story. All the events in the story were hyped and then dropped, and as such, may have been more successful as a set of unrelated short stories.
Finally, for someone so head-over-heels for Rachel Carson, Miles (that is, the author) fell into a generalized disrespect for scientists and revealed a reverence for New Age pseudoscience.
For all that was jarring to me (above), I enjoyed the book - the author pulled me along with enough hooks to keep me turning the pages, although I often found the promised events somewhat anti-climactic. I found Miles a sympathetic character as a natural historian (if not a believable one given his age).
This was gift from my brother. If he hasn't read it, I'll pass it back. I would be tempted to give it to the kid who dragged me into being a staff adviser for the birdwatching club at the parks and rec after-school programs (which has lacked success so far), but there's too much sex in the book to come as a recommendation from a science teacher.
Endearing October 25, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Even if you aren't someone who loves the sea and its creatures, you have to love the main character for loving them. It's that contageous, and it is what gives this book its charm. It is superbly written, with depth and humor (recalling the sexually obsessed teen years). It is not a book I would ordinanrily pick, but it was recommended. I surprised myself and really enjoyed it.
(two and a half stars) Ah, the wonder of it all! September 16, 2006
3 out of 11 found this review helpful
I know I was supposed to find Jim Lynch's debut novel, "The Highest Tide," wonderous(!), and magical(!) and mystical(!). Surely, the diminutive precocious hero of the book, young Miles O'Malley (who has a particular knack for finding odd sea life on his late night strolls along the beach of the Puget Sound) is irresistible(!), and inspirational(!). As you can tell from my sarcasm, none of it really worked for me.
It's not that I really despised the book -- it's just that I don't like when an author tries to awe me on every other page. By about the middle of the book, I started getting pretty bored with not only Miles, but also with his rough-around-the-edges air guitar playing side-kick, Phelps; the totally messed up love of his life, Angie; and his best friend, the elderly, new age spouting, prophetic, Florence. The last described character especially annoyed me, in the way her off the wall predictions always came true.
I guess we have to trust the author's depiction about the sea-life that he describes. I don't know about you, but I'm not about to start researching the sex lives of barnacles, clams and mussels for verification purposes. Although, I admit it would be kind of neat to find a giant squid washed up on the beach.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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