In The Highest Tide, Jim
Lynch’s debut novel, 13-year-old Miles O’Malley —
Squid Boy to his friends — discovers freaks of marine biology
while beach-combing near his home. He also encounters sex, death,
divorce, and the bizarre world of media stardom along the way.
A boy genius who’s abnormally short for his age,
Miles gets the world’s attention when he discovers a
still-living giant squid washed up on the shores of Skookumchuck
Bay near Olympia, Wash. This rare find is followed by an
out-of-its-depths ragfish, an oversize sea star, and other
grotesque and spectacular creatures. Miles remarks to one pestering
reporter, “Maybe the earth is trying to tell us something,” an
offhand comment he instantly regrets. “Dip into the mystical,
especially if you appear to be an unsullied, clearheaded child, and
they want to write a song about you.”
But Squid Boy is
more than just the Pacific Northwest’s Holden Caufield. His
wise cynicism — “Grown-ups are always more fascinated by what
you might become than what you are” — pales next to his sweet
solicitousness: He nurses an old neighbor with Parkinson’s
disease, and tends his bipolar former babysitter.
In the
end, Miles’ discoveries extend far beyond the detritus of the
sea. “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.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Waiting for the tide.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
