Readers are often drawn to novels set in familiar surroundings. Perhaps that is why 250 people packed the downtown Olympia branch of the Timberland Regional Library on a recent Thursday evening to hear local writer, Jim Lynch. “It was a bit unnerving to see folks standing and sitting in every direction,” Lynch said. All were eager to listen to him read from his recently released novel, Before the Wind. Only Jeopardy champion, Ken Jennings, and local performer Kimya Dawson had previously attracted such an audience at the library.
As with his first novel, The Highest Tide, which was published in 2005, Before the Wind, has a backdrop of many true, but lightly disguised Olympia sights and sounds, and the audience murmured with delight when they recognized them. As West Bay Marina morphs into the “marina somewhere south of Seattle,” we meet Josh Johannassen, a boat repairman, who is the central character in the novel.
In commenting on his choice of setting for Before the Wind, Lynch laughed, “Where else could you find such a genuine boating subculture like West Bay? It has it all – colorful bar and restaurant, genuine sailors with intriguing stories who are addicted to boating, and docks full of real but not always glamorous boats.”
He has achieved his goal in this novel of showing the populist side of sailing. “People too often think sailing and regattas are only for the rich and famous, and that is just not so,” Lynch said.
Lynch’s selection of readings from the novel combined both key elements of family strife and hearty humor. Josh comes from a family consumed by sailing. His grandfather, Grumps, designed sail boats in Seattle, his crusty father, Bobo Jr., builds and sails them, and he and his siblings are forced into the sport early in their lives. In the background, his mother lends her own musings to the family dynamics. The plot revolves around the hopes engendered by a twenty-year family reunion for the annual Swiftsure race in the waters of British Columbia.
Lynch, a sailor himself, often participates in local races. His narrative voice is clear and authoritative when using sailing terminology, describing mundane boat repair and narrating exciting regattas. A reader does not have to be a sailor to dive right into this novel because the characters and humor carry the story. I guarantee it will be hard to put the novel down.
Lynch’s experience as a journalist prepared him well for writing fiction. “I know how to research from my years of doing investigative reporting, so I do a great deal of research for each book.” In addition to time spent down at West Bay, Lynch also spent time chatting with folks about on-line dating since that is one of Josh’s favorite pastimes.
Lynch shared two humorous passages from Before the Wind at the library reading. In one, Josh grabs a Styrofoam coffee cup of coffee at the boat yard on his way to meet a date. Later the woman tells him she won’t see him again because she could never date a man who would drink out of Styrofoam. The real laughs came longer and harder a bit later when Lynch read the Viagra commercial scenario. This segment earned high praise for Lynch’s writing from Sam Sacks in his Wall Street Journal review, “His hilarious gloss on the Viagra commercial that confusingly features a middle-aged man alone on a boat is worth the cover price on its own.”
Neil Falkenberg, General Manager of the West Bay Marina, also got chuckles when he asked Lynch if he was getting product placement royalties for the Viagra section of the novel. Lynch responded by explaining how he fought his editor’s attempt to cut the Viagra scene during the grueling editing process.
After witnessing the enthusiasm of the library audience, I asked Lynch if he thought the Olympia community was more receptive to his newest novel than previous ones. He said, “When I wrote The Highest Tide, I had only lived in the area for a few years, but now, after eighteen years, I am fearless about my rendition of Olympia.”
His community connections were obvious, especially when he called on the questioners, mostly by name, and often responded with personal anecdotes. With great respect for other local writers, he mentioned John Dodge and Ned Hayes and gave a special shout out to Nikki McClure for her new book, Waiting for High Tide and to Maria Mudd Ruth, for Rare Bird. Lynch also encouraged readers to support local bookstores like Orca Books and Browsers Bookshop.
What a treat it is for Olympia to have such a personable and gifted writer in our community. Lynch will be teaching the Summer Creative Writing Institute at Saint Martin’s University, June 12-18, 2016.
Before he settles down to lecture on his craft at Saint Martin’s, Lynch heads out on a 40-city book tour. Asked how people in Kansas might react to his sailing story, he responded, “People in the middle of the country can take a vacation on the water through reading!” Readers in Olympia, on the other hand, can picture themselves in Budd Inlet sailing with the Johannssens.
