High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never
by Barbara Kingsolver

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Book Reviews of High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never

Book Review: The SeniorNet Online Book Club found this book interesting.
Summary: 4 Stars

Among her many talents, Kingsolver is a Naturalist, and although her essays do not rival those of the author of "The Burgess Shale" she does cite him several times in this book and thereby earns my respect. Though this first essay is predicated on "Natural History", I prefer to discuss that particular area in subsequent treatises. I, too have done my share of "Beach-combing" and have raised Hermit Crabs (In the Caribbean). I think Kingsolver starts this series with observations and comments that immediately alert us to the fact that she is uncommonly perceptive and a "Real Human Being", one of "US", who has not become so enamored of herself as to lose the humility necessary to be, as she puts it, " A good animal, today take this life for what it is" (LJ Klein)

Content was good, but she was too verbose for me. She took too many words to get her point across. I'm not a big user of adjectives. Will reread and read others when I get book, but will have to withold my praise for now. ... I guess I couldn't get over style to enjoy content. I get that way sometimes--stubborn and opinionated. (Ruth Warren)

It is salutory -- and doubless fashionable -- to be reminded from time to time that humankind's animal needs are simple and basic. But I hold with those who value the trappings of civilized human society, without which, as Hobbes put it, human existence would be "...solitary, nasty, brutish and short." The human animal has a wonderfully complex brain, and is able--as Kingsolver is of course doing here -- to analyse its own drifts and instincts make comparisons and communicate these thoughts to others of its kind. Long live the technology that enables Kingsolver to return from her day in the desert, write down her experience, publish her essay by the thousands. (Carolyn Andersen)

I agree that this book expresses Kingsolver's understanding of her stages in life. Interesting to read because her experiences are so universal, yet with her delicious wording it relieves the heaviness of the lesson, and supplants it with wry snickers. However, she describes her enchantment with the desert beautifully. Her day with the caves and the former inhabitants is an experience we share, and the changed perception was certainly "life-changing". (Rhea Coleman)

...She is a great writer. I thought it was very interesting how Kingsolver opened this essay with a mini essay about hermit crabs and then through the following little essays wove a thread through her life similar to that of the crab's, ie, being uprooted from her Kentucky and the crab from the Bahamas, exploring her new land in Arizona and the crab getting used to his new surroundings in the aquarium. This lady has an astute knowledge of the English language and an uncanny ability to put her thoughts into words that seem to portray exactly what she is thinking and what we need to hear. She stirs my thoughts like a small eddy in a lazy mountain stream. (Patrick Mulligan)

I really liked this essay. I must point to my particular bias. That writers must not only have something to say it's important how they say it. I expected to be bored...who reads essays not me unless "driven." In this case surprised and delighted, laughing at her descriptions of the animals and able to envision her imagery. (claire read)

I knew I would love the book while reading through the first essay, because she and I think much the same way, only of course I could never express myself quite like that. What I thought about many times since reading that book is the fact that "life is made of frightening losses and unfathomable gifts." We all know that is true, but I've never read it expressed as well. My terminology runs more to "We were never promised a Rose Garden." If you make it.....it is because you have learned to cope, and in this life you have soooo many opportunities to try and try again to get it right. I also appreciated what she said about children learning discrimination from their parents. Reminded me of that wonderful song from "South Pacific","You've Got to be Taught." (Fran Ollweiler)

Barbara Kingsolver is a wonderfully adept writer who can describe things so well that you can actually see it. Her description of moving from Kentucky to Tucson and how the life in Tucson was so different from the life she knew really hit home for me. We all do start new lives over and over as Barbara said. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job or a limb or a loved one. Each new scary or nice happening in our lives forces us to gather our resources and face whatever it is that we are dealt with in life. (Ruth Levia)

Barbara Kingsolver not only writes in a very interesting style, but she also teaches a lot. I was amazed that while being very fascinated with the essays, I feel I learned something from each one. I knew nothing of the hermit crab and thought her descriptions were very interesting. I enjoyed her discussion in this essay about the effect of the lunar cycles and the tides in Tuscon. The tie-in of the internal clocks of animals in the Chicago experiment fit well with the theme of this essay. Her trek into the uncharted wilderness in western Arizona provided a very thought provoking experience as expressed by the wonder of finding the corn-grinding stone and her unwillingness to remove the stone from that location. Think it exhibited a reverance for the past that comes through very clearly in her essays. (Larry Hanna)

I loved the images of water and tides in the essay. When we first voted to read it, I thought, essays?? Oh, no....boooooring. Boy, was I wrong. I'm trying to pay attention to what I know are themes in the essays- she herself says "my intent was to make it a book with a beginning, and end, and modicum of reason." I see joy and hope personified by the water images in the essay. She states," I have taught myself joy, over and over again, "and, "Let me dance in the waves of my private tide, the habits of survival and love." The message is coping, and hope: "High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is." I found the first chapter to be a wonderful blend of the "linear thinking" of the scientist and the far reaching imagination of the poet in the author. Huxley was said to be Darwin's Bulldog- Kingsolver, I think, is Darwin's bard- the singer of the verses of evolution- revealing and reveling in both its mysteries and its elegance. (Ginny)

I love Kingsolver's style. High Tide in Tucson expresses a wonderful way to live your life. We should always be in touch with our internal "tides" and acknowledge the rocks in the stream. (Sandy Bridgforth

Summary of High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never

In High Tide in Tucson, she returnsto her familiar themes of family, community, the common good and the natural world. The title essay considers Buster, a hermit crab that accidentally stows away on Kingsolver's return trip from the Bahamas to her desert home, and turns out to have manic-depressive tendencies. Buster is running around for all he's worth -- one can only presume it's high tide in Tucson. Kingsolver brings a moral vision and refreshing sense of humor to subjects ranging from modern motherhood to the history of private property to the suspended citizenship of human beings in the Animal Kingdom.

Beautifully packaged, with original illustrations by well-known illustrator Paul Mirocha, these wise lessons on the urgent business of being alive make it a perfect gift for Kingsolver's many fans.

Essays Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Essays
• United States > Collections & Readers