Jim Lynch’s debut novel wins favor with reviewers
First novels typically don’t get rave reviews. They typically don’t get reviewed at all. Jim Lynch’s novel “The Highest Tide” (Bloomsbury, 246 pages, $23.95) is, then, an unusual creation because it is getting a wide range of good, if not great, comments.
Some critics have minor problems with Lynch’s book, a tale about a young boy who finds strange creatures in Puget Sound. But all the reviews that I could find end up liking it.
Just read the following remarks:
From Publishers Weekly: “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.”
From Booklist: “Ultimately, the story feels overwhelmed by Lynch’s heavy oceanic metaphor and elliptical intimations of mystical forces at work, but many readers, particularly those who enjoy discovering new voices in fiction, will appreciate Lynch’s assertive, microscopically observant writing and respond to the precocious hero, a boy so attuned to the land that his coming-of-age exerts a tidal pull on the very molecules of his environment.”
From Seattle Post-Intelligencer critic John Marshall: “Lynch, who did mud-flats research much like his protagonist, brings a fine eye for detail, a talent for dialogue and a resonant power of description to his novel’s Northwest setting and characters. But he also possesses a poet’s appreciation for the power of metaphor.”
And the literary journal Kirkus Reviews: “On land, the rickety plot could have used some shoring up. … But when Miles is on the water, Lynch’s first novel becomes a stunning light show, both literal, during phosphorescent plankton blooms, and metaphorical, in the poetic fireworks Lynch’s prose sets off as he describes his clearly beloved Puget Sound. A celebratory song of the sea.”
Lynch is a former Spokesman-Review reporter who now lives in Olympia, so his 7:30 p.m. Monday reading at Auntie’s Bookstore is a homecoming of sorts. Which is at least one reason why Spokane author Jess Walter, another former S-R staff writer (and author of the critically acclaimed novel “Citizen Vince”) will be there to introduce him.
And, like everyone else, no doubt to say nice things about his book.
For further information, call 838-0206.
Is Spokane reading?
We’re barely two weeks from the kickoff for the fourth-annual Spokane Is Reading celebration, which this year features everything from movies to camera obscura, life drawing and art history classes. And that’s not to mention the traditional public discussions about this year’s featured read, Susan Vreeland’s novel “The Girl In Hyacinth Blue” (Penguin, 256 pages, $13).
The novel involves a painting by the 17th-century Dutch painter Jan Vermeer and the various stories of those who have owned it.
The first event is an Oct. 1 showing of “Brush With Fate,” a 2003 CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame production that stars Glenn Close, Thomas Gibson and Ellen Burstyn, which will be held at 2 p.m. at the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library, 906 W. Main Ave.
I’ll print more later about October’s entire Spokane Is Reading calendar. For now, you can find further information about all the events surrounding the project by calling Spokane County Library at 924-4122, Spokane Public Library at 444-5307, or by going to the Web site at www.spokaneisreading.org.
Book talk
• Poetry reading group (747-3454), 3 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
• Current Affairs Book Group (“The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke,” by Elizabeth Warren), 6 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
• Dark City Book Group (“Shakespeare’s Counselor,” by Charlaine Harris), 7 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
• Book club organizer, 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Tinman Gallery, 811 W. Garland Ave. (325-1500).
• Auntie’s Youth Book Group (“Inkheart,” by Cornelia Funke), 2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
The reader board
• Jane Powell (“Bungalow: The Ultimate Arts & Crafts Home”), signing, 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Revival Lighting, 14 W. Main Ave.; reading, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
• Jim Lynch (“The Highest Tide”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore.