This last Saturday I went to a local book reading/signing at Orca Books. The book being read was “The Highest Tide” by Jim Lynch, who is an Olympia native, and whose book takes place in Olympia. As of about an hour ago, I finished reading it, and I have to say, it rocks my face off. Seriously, go read it.
The story follows a thirteen-year-old boy named Miles O’Malley who lives on the edge of the Puget Sound and who is obsessed with Rachel Carson, marine life, and the girl-next-door who used to babysit him. When Miles finds a giant squid washed up from a high tide, he is catapulted into local fame. When he continues to find things in the bay that shouldn’t be there, his fame goes from local to national, and he gets a lot of largely unwanted attention. Despite these catalysts, the story remains focused on Miles’ experiences with the ocean, with growing up (at the age of thirteen he still looks nine), with his parents who are growing distant, a friend who is dying and a girl he loves who is spinning out of control.
It’s often funny, particularly when Miles is explaining such things as the sex life of barnacles, or trying himself to understand the perhaps more bizarre sex life of humans. His friend Phelps plays a mean air guitar, and constantly talks about “melons”. The girl he loves is a local rockstar known to faint onstage. The book is so abundantly infused with life and energy and depth that it mirrors the bay around which it is framed.
Jim himself seems very cool, and he signed my book, which is awesome.
Rating: 5 / 5 stars.
Note: This book rocks my face off.
Link.