The Lincoln Highway
by Amor Towles
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"The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to show more pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction-to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes"-- show lessTags
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teelgee A rollicking buddy cross-country road trip with many misadventures and questionable characters.
Member Reviews
I previously enjoyed both The Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow, but Amor Towles has succeeded in surpassing both of those novels with The Lincoln Highway. It is a road story with four young men exploring America and finding themselves. While these four are at the center of the novel it literally explodes with characters, most of whom are fascinating. By the time an older black man named Ulysses arrives on the scene and bonds with young Billy I was hooked and found it hard to put the book down.
In June 1954, the warden of the juvenile work farm where Emmett Watson, then 18 years old, had recently completed a fifteen-month sentence for involuntary homicide, drove him back to Nebraska. Emmett plans to travel to California with show more his brother Billy, age 8, so they can begin a new life there after losing their mother and father, respectively, and the family farm to bank foreclosure. However, as the warden pulls away, Emmett notices that two of his work farm friends had snuck inside the car's trunk. They have come up with a completely new strategy for Emmett's future, one that will send them all on a perilous voyage in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. The suspense builds as the journeys of the main characters head toward a denouement that is worth the more than five hundred pages it takes to get there.
Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel was more than entertaining with his multi-layered literary styling while providing an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. show less
In June 1954, the warden of the juvenile work farm where Emmett Watson, then 18 years old, had recently completed a fifteen-month sentence for involuntary homicide, drove him back to Nebraska. Emmett plans to travel to California with show more his brother Billy, age 8, so they can begin a new life there after losing their mother and father, respectively, and the family farm to bank foreclosure. However, as the warden pulls away, Emmett notices that two of his work farm friends had snuck inside the car's trunk. They have come up with a completely new strategy for Emmett's future, one that will send them all on a perilous voyage in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. The suspense builds as the journeys of the main characters head toward a denouement that is worth the more than five hundred pages it takes to get there.
Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel was more than entertaining with his multi-layered literary styling while providing an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. show less
The Lincoln Highway is a huge novel that is difficult to summarise in a sentence or two. It’s kind of a road trip novel, but it’s also an adventure and commentary on the plight of different people. It’s also a coming of age story and a family story with an element of mystery. Trust in where the author takes you and you won’t be disappointed.
There are multiple characters in this thick novel, all with their own varied story to tell. At the centre of it all is Emmett, recently released from a juvenile work farm after the death of his father. He’s now the sole carer for his eight year old brother and the bank has just taken the family farm. But he has a plan, now all he has to do is enact it. Except that he wasn’t expecting two show more friends from the work farm to appear at the farm wanting a ride to New York, the exact opposite direction to Emmett’s plans. What follows is an adventure for all involved that includes the railways, theft, revenge, new friends, freedom and surprising turns of events. One of the strongest points of this 1950s novel is you are never quite sure where it will go next, so in my opinion the less the reader knows, the more fun it is.
The story is told from multiple characters’ points of view, from Emmett to friends Woolly and Duchess. Interestingly, although Duchess is the most complex character to work out, his sections are told in the first person in comparison to everyone else in the third person. It’s also not just the major characters who tell the story, some of the supporting cast tell the story, adding a richness of perspective. The characters are all flawed, and see justice in different ways which both adds to the charm of the novel as well as making things more complex for each of them. The reader can’t help but cheer all of them on as they seek to find what will make them happy. Some of the things that happen to them are quite amusing or devastating (poor Emmett can’t catch a trick) which makes the story fascinating, but the ending really packs an emotional punch as the journey comes to an end. It’s made even sadder knowing that the story is coming to a close and it’s time to leave these characters.
As always, Towles writes brilliantly. The novel does start slowly, which I’ve come to realise is pretty normal for his works, but it creates the scene for the characters to grow and take over the story. This novel is very different from Towles’ previous novels, so don’t expect a Rules of Civility or A Gentleman in Moscow. It’s different in era, tone and expanse (this time we have the whole of America to explore) but it does have the brilliant creation of characters with a memorable story that is once again unforgettable. This would also make a great TV series.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less
There are multiple characters in this thick novel, all with their own varied story to tell. At the centre of it all is Emmett, recently released from a juvenile work farm after the death of his father. He’s now the sole carer for his eight year old brother and the bank has just taken the family farm. But he has a plan, now all he has to do is enact it. Except that he wasn’t expecting two show more friends from the work farm to appear at the farm wanting a ride to New York, the exact opposite direction to Emmett’s plans. What follows is an adventure for all involved that includes the railways, theft, revenge, new friends, freedom and surprising turns of events. One of the strongest points of this 1950s novel is you are never quite sure where it will go next, so in my opinion the less the reader knows, the more fun it is.
The story is told from multiple characters’ points of view, from Emmett to friends Woolly and Duchess. Interestingly, although Duchess is the most complex character to work out, his sections are told in the first person in comparison to everyone else in the third person. It’s also not just the major characters who tell the story, some of the supporting cast tell the story, adding a richness of perspective. The characters are all flawed, and see justice in different ways which both adds to the charm of the novel as well as making things more complex for each of them. The reader can’t help but cheer all of them on as they seek to find what will make them happy. Some of the things that happen to them are quite amusing or devastating (poor Emmett can’t catch a trick) which makes the story fascinating, but the ending really packs an emotional punch as the journey comes to an end. It’s made even sadder knowing that the story is coming to a close and it’s time to leave these characters.
As always, Towles writes brilliantly. The novel does start slowly, which I’ve come to realise is pretty normal for his works, but it creates the scene for the characters to grow and take over the story. This novel is very different from Towles’ previous novels, so don’t expect a Rules of Civility or A Gentleman in Moscow. It’s different in era, tone and expanse (this time we have the whole of America to explore) but it does have the brilliant creation of characters with a memorable story that is once again unforgettable. This would also make a great TV series.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less
Readers expecting another A Gentleman in Moscow will receive a surprise because this book is very different in terms of style. But just like Towles’ previous book, it is a great read.
The novel covers ten days in June of 1954. Emmett Watson, 18, arrives home after serving a sentence in a juvenile reformatory. Since he and his eight-year-old brother Billy are orphans, they decide to leave their Nebraska home and set out for California in Emmett’s 1948 Studebaker to begin a new life. Before they can leave, two of Emmett’s fellow inmates, Duchess and Woolly, arrive with alternate travel plans. Instead of heading west, the Watsons have to make a detour to New York City and not always in Emmett’s car.
The book is narrated from show more multiple perspectives, most in the third person. Only Duchess’ chapters and those of Sally, a neighbour of the Watsons, are in first person. Often the same event is seen from the viewpoint of more than one character. Characters also reveal their opinions of others; for instance Duchess admires Emmett’s integrity and Woolly is well aware of Duchess’s tendency to exaggerate: “For when it came to telling stories, Duchess was a bit of a Paul Bunyan, for whom the snow was always ten feet deep, and the river as wide as the sea.”
This structure allows all characters to be fully realized. Emmett emerges as a decent young man who loves his brother and is determined to make a better life for both of them. Billy is an endearing child, trusting and precocious but naïve. Sally is stubborn and independent. Woolly is kind and has a childlike sense of wonder. Duchess is a charismatic charmer, described by one man as “one of the most entertaining shit slingers whom I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet,” but he is selfish and manipulative. Because detailed backstories are provided for everyone, the reader comes to understand characters’ motivations and see that all are flawed. No one is totally perfect or imperfect. My one complaint about the characters is that they often seem older than their biological ages.
Billy is obsessed with a book compiling stories of heroes and adventurers, some real and some mythical. These stories are referenced often. What is emphasized is that each of the characters in the novel sets out on a journey with a personal agenda. Emmett wants to go to Texas but Billy convinces him to go to California because he wants to find someone. Duchess and Woolly want to go to the summer home of Woolly’s family in the Adirondacks, though their specific reasons for that visit are different.
Billy’s book combines stories “of the greatest minds of the scientific age,” like Galileo, da Vinci and Edison, and legends of “mythical heroes” like Hercules, Theseus, and Jason, to suggest “That shoulder to shoulder they traveled through the realms of the known and the unknown making the most of their intelligence and courage, yes, but also sorcery and enchantment and the occasional intervention of the gods.” Like legendary travellers and real-life discoverers, Billy and Emmett encounter obstacles, and both dangerous people and people who are genuinely kind. They are sometimes taken off course. They both learn lessons along the way.
The point seems to be that life is a journey, but people get to make choices about where they want to go: “Maybe, just maybe what [God] requires of us, what He expects of us, what He hopes for us is that . . . we will go out into the world and find [our missions] for ourselves.” Everyone can be a hero or adventurer. Emmett’s father quotes Emerson to encourage his son to choose his own path “and in so doing discover that which he alone was capable of.” We can determine our fates: “For only when you have seen that you are truly forsaken will you embrace the fact that what happens next rests in your hands, and your hands alone.” This lesson Billy takes to heart. One elderly man chooses to follow in Ulysses’ footsteps (in both the literal sense and in the sense outlined in Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”).
There is something for every reader. There is suspense when they face life-threatening danger. There is pathos in the troubled histories of so many of the characters. There is humour: “On the shelf above the fish was a recent photo of four men having just finished a round of golf. Luckily it was in color, so you could take note of all the clothes you would never want to wear.” I loved the literary allusions: a Walt Whitman impersonator is described so that “with the floppy hat on his head and his milky blue eyes, he was every bit the song of himself.”
The more I think about the novel, the more I find noteworthy. A re-reading would not be amiss. This is magical storytelling. Though the book has almost 600 pages, it does not feel lengthy in the least.
Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). show less
The novel covers ten days in June of 1954. Emmett Watson, 18, arrives home after serving a sentence in a juvenile reformatory. Since he and his eight-year-old brother Billy are orphans, they decide to leave their Nebraska home and set out for California in Emmett’s 1948 Studebaker to begin a new life. Before they can leave, two of Emmett’s fellow inmates, Duchess and Woolly, arrive with alternate travel plans. Instead of heading west, the Watsons have to make a detour to New York City and not always in Emmett’s car.
The book is narrated from show more multiple perspectives, most in the third person. Only Duchess’ chapters and those of Sally, a neighbour of the Watsons, are in first person. Often the same event is seen from the viewpoint of more than one character. Characters also reveal their opinions of others; for instance Duchess admires Emmett’s integrity and Woolly is well aware of Duchess’s tendency to exaggerate: “For when it came to telling stories, Duchess was a bit of a Paul Bunyan, for whom the snow was always ten feet deep, and the river as wide as the sea.”
This structure allows all characters to be fully realized. Emmett emerges as a decent young man who loves his brother and is determined to make a better life for both of them. Billy is an endearing child, trusting and precocious but naïve. Sally is stubborn and independent. Woolly is kind and has a childlike sense of wonder. Duchess is a charismatic charmer, described by one man as “one of the most entertaining shit slingers whom I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet,” but he is selfish and manipulative. Because detailed backstories are provided for everyone, the reader comes to understand characters’ motivations and see that all are flawed. No one is totally perfect or imperfect. My one complaint about the characters is that they often seem older than their biological ages.
Billy is obsessed with a book compiling stories of heroes and adventurers, some real and some mythical. These stories are referenced often. What is emphasized is that each of the characters in the novel sets out on a journey with a personal agenda. Emmett wants to go to Texas but Billy convinces him to go to California because he wants to find someone. Duchess and Woolly want to go to the summer home of Woolly’s family in the Adirondacks, though their specific reasons for that visit are different.
Billy’s book combines stories “of the greatest minds of the scientific age,” like Galileo, da Vinci and Edison, and legends of “mythical heroes” like Hercules, Theseus, and Jason, to suggest “That shoulder to shoulder they traveled through the realms of the known and the unknown making the most of their intelligence and courage, yes, but also sorcery and enchantment and the occasional intervention of the gods.” Like legendary travellers and real-life discoverers, Billy and Emmett encounter obstacles, and both dangerous people and people who are genuinely kind. They are sometimes taken off course. They both learn lessons along the way.
The point seems to be that life is a journey, but people get to make choices about where they want to go: “Maybe, just maybe what [God] requires of us, what He expects of us, what He hopes for us is that . . . we will go out into the world and find [our missions] for ourselves.” Everyone can be a hero or adventurer. Emmett’s father quotes Emerson to encourage his son to choose his own path “and in so doing discover that which he alone was capable of.” We can determine our fates: “For only when you have seen that you are truly forsaken will you embrace the fact that what happens next rests in your hands, and your hands alone.” This lesson Billy takes to heart. One elderly man chooses to follow in Ulysses’ footsteps (in both the literal sense and in the sense outlined in Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”).
There is something for every reader. There is suspense when they face life-threatening danger. There is pathos in the troubled histories of so many of the characters. There is humour: “On the shelf above the fish was a recent photo of four men having just finished a round of golf. Luckily it was in color, so you could take note of all the clothes you would never want to wear.” I loved the literary allusions: a Walt Whitman impersonator is described so that “with the floppy hat on his head and his milky blue eyes, he was every bit the song of himself.”
The more I think about the novel, the more I find noteworthy. A re-reading would not be amiss. This is magical storytelling. Though the book has almost 600 pages, it does not feel lengthy in the least.
Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). show less
Emmett Watson returns from a juvenile detention center in Salina home to Nebraska after the death of his father. It's just him, his little brother Billy, and a pile of bills, so Emmett's plan is to pick up stakes and move. Billy wants to drive the Lincoln Highway to San Francisco in their mother's footsteps, but then two of Emmett's buddies from Salina show up with plans of their own, kicking off a road trip of epic proportions.
I am trying to wrap my hands around my sprawling thoughts after finishing this book to mold them into a semblance of a review that both does the book justice and doesn't give spoilers. The storyline is a cross between an epic and a tall tale. The narrative follows several different characters - primarily Emmett show more and Duchess and Woolly, the two friends who turn up on his doorstep with grand plans, but also of Billy, their neighbor Sally, and a few characters that the boys come across in the course of their travels. Duchess is a fast-talking son of an alcoholic actor who could have annoyed me but was really a rather lovable scamp that reminded me of Huck Finn. His buddy Woolly has some troubles and an addiction of his own, but is a generally kind and thoughtful young man. And Emmett, our hero, is setting off trying to make his way in the world. Billy was honestly my favorite. I loved his perspective and his innocence. Towles shows his skill in keeping such a complex narrative readable, creating unique voices for each character, and crafting a book so different from his last. I can see why it made so many best lists in 2021. show less
I am trying to wrap my hands around my sprawling thoughts after finishing this book to mold them into a semblance of a review that both does the book justice and doesn't give spoilers. The storyline is a cross between an epic and a tall tale. The narrative follows several different characters - primarily Emmett show more and Duchess and Woolly, the two friends who turn up on his doorstep with grand plans, but also of Billy, their neighbor Sally, and a few characters that the boys come across in the course of their travels. Duchess is a fast-talking son of an alcoholic actor who could have annoyed me but was really a rather lovable scamp that reminded me of Huck Finn. His buddy Woolly has some troubles and an addiction of his own, but is a generally kind and thoughtful young man. And Emmett, our hero, is setting off trying to make his way in the world. Billy was honestly my favorite. I loved his perspective and his innocence. Towles shows his skill in keeping such a complex narrative readable, creating unique voices for each character, and crafting a book so different from his last. I can see why it made so many best lists in 2021. show less
This is a hard book to review. The title and plot description would have readers believing that this is a light-hearted "road trip" story, and indeed many of the tropes of road trip novels are present: a gang of chums crossing the U.S. on a quest, encounters with eccentric characters, misadventures, etc. Towles has a particular gift for creating beguiling characters: a weary veteran endlessly riding the rails in a futile attempt to flee the consequences of his pride, a luminous constellation of washed-up burlesque performers, an Emerson-quoting farmer destroyed by the very "self-reliance" he covets. This is a literary feast of evocative descriptions and poignant interludes.
However, it doesn't take a degree in literature to see that show more Towles' tale is operating on multiple levels. Early in the novel Towles introduces "Professor Abacus Abernathe’s Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers," complete with an empty chapter standing at ready for the Professor's young readers to record the tale of their own "hero's journey." Hard to imagine a more overt invitation to reflect upon the ways in which fate and hubris shape the lives of ordinary folk too! Certainly they shape the lives of the protagonists of this tale, each of whom is burdened by vagaries of fate (an unjust accusation, an accidental death, an ill-timed encounter with a police officer) as well as "fatal flaws" embedded in their natures: Emmett's quick temper, Billy's naivete, Duchess's cheerful immorality, Woolly's guilelessness. One by one, our protagonists are tested, some - a la Ulysses - achieving redemption, others tragically destroyed - a la Achilles or Caesar - by their fatal flaws.
I get that some are upset by perceived inconsistencies in the final chapters of the book, but one could argue that these resolutions merely hammer home the point that even those heroes who achieve redemption rarely emerge unchanged by their ordeal. In the words of Professor Abernathe: 'How easily we forget - we in the business of storytelling- that life was the point all along.”
By all means enjoy this book's many delights - the lucid storytelling, the beguiling characters, the evocative descriptions. But as you go along, you may wish to take Towles up on his invitation to reflect upon the fact that while none of us are immune from the manipulations of fate, the measure of our character is in how we respond to the adventures and perils that are set in our way. show less
However, it doesn't take a degree in literature to see that show more Towles' tale is operating on multiple levels. Early in the novel Towles introduces "Professor Abacus Abernathe’s Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers," complete with an empty chapter standing at ready for the Professor's young readers to record the tale of their own "hero's journey." Hard to imagine a more overt invitation to reflect upon the ways in which fate and hubris shape the lives of ordinary folk too! Certainly they shape the lives of the protagonists of this tale, each of whom is burdened by vagaries of fate (an unjust accusation, an accidental death, an ill-timed encounter with a police officer) as well as "fatal flaws" embedded in their natures: Emmett's quick temper, Billy's naivete, Duchess's cheerful immorality, Woolly's guilelessness. One by one, our protagonists are tested, some - a la Ulysses - achieving redemption, others tragically destroyed - a la Achilles or Caesar - by their fatal flaws.
I get that some are upset by perceived inconsistencies in the final chapters of the book, but one could argue that these resolutions merely hammer home the point that even those heroes who achieve redemption rarely emerge unchanged by their ordeal. In the words of Professor Abernathe: 'How easily we forget - we in the business of storytelling- that life was the point all along.”
By all means enjoy this book's many delights - the lucid storytelling, the beguiling characters, the evocative descriptions. But as you go along, you may wish to take Towles up on his invitation to reflect upon the fact that while none of us are immune from the manipulations of fate, the measure of our character is in how we respond to the adventures and perils that are set in our way. show less
The Lincoln Highway: A Novel, Amor Towles, author; Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham, narrators
Towles has woven a story about the life of several young boys in the middle of the 20th century. Using the Lincoln Highway as the road to their future and as the vehicle to expose their secrets and dreams, he unravels an amazing tale. The Depression, the Holocaust, Prohibition, droughts, and all manner of crimes have occurred, the consequences of which reverberate from generation to generation. This story is at once hard to believe and yet highly plausible.
The characters are diverse in color, religion, background and behavior, but they are all suffering in one way or another and are all presumed to be in, or rapidly approaching, show more their late teens. As a teenager, Emmett Watson made a grave mistake. A wayward punch led to the death of a bully who was insulting the memory of his father, Charles Watson. Emmett paid for his crime and was on his way to start a new life after his father's death and the foreclosure proceedings for his dad's farm. Emmett wanted to go to Texas with his little brother, only 8 years old, to begin a career in carpentry and real estate. His brother Billy, however, wanted to go to San Francisco to search for his mother who has abandoned the family shortly after Billy’s birth.
While in the Salina reformatory, Emmett met Duchess and Woolly. Duchess, a chameleon able to take on many different personas, had been abandoned as a child and abused by his dad. He had no moral compass, seemed unaware of his wrongdoings, and constantly wove believable tales to excuse them. Woolly, from the upper class, was brought up with every luxury and coddled but ostracized because he -was simple-minded and took everything literally. He was, contrasted with Duchess, completely without guile. Sally, unspoken for, lived with her father who was busy ordering her around like a maid and accumulating real estate. She yearned to be free of his demands. Billy, at 8 years old was likely the brightest bulb in the group, but he was totally naïve, often creating more problems than solutions. His favorite book is “Professor Abacus Abernathe's Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers and Intrepid Travelers”. He uses it as his guide through life's many moments. He extrapolates solutions and offers advice to all, based on the wisdom of the characters within the book. Ulysses is a hobo who is instrumental in saving the lives of the Watson brothers. How he became a hobo involves the choices that he made, which he now regrets by choosing his lonely lifestyle. While his past and present choices were consequential, were they right or wrong? Townhouse, from Harlem, is aware of the rules of the street and their requirements to survive. He is a leader and in charge on the street. He and Emmett made a connection at Salina. There are many more characters entering and exiting the pages of the book as we travel with them on the historic Lincoln Highway. It goes from the Southwest in California, to the Northeast and New York. It was privately funded. The travels begin in Nebraska. Other influential characters are Professor Abernathe, Sarah, the sheriff, Sister Agnes, Kaitlin, the corrupt pastor, etc. They all play a vital role in the way Emmet’s life unfolds. They all symbolize unique bits of society’s good and evil. Each character views the same situation through different eyes and draws separate conclusions. Each character brings out some new flaw or benefit of the human condition and the way they interact in different situations.
At the end, one will ask, do we ever truly know someone else or understand their motives or their decisions? We will wonder what is right and wrong in different situations. We will think about those that always seem to be victims of circumstance. We will wonder about appropriate consequences for our decisions and actions. Do the punishments fit the crimes and mistakes? Are they arbitrary? Are they deserved? We might begin to question what is morality? Is revenge ever a suitable solution? What about suicide or the taking of drugs? Does our legal system that requires retribution actually accomplish anything positive? Is it all right to occasionally break the rules or do we fool ourselves by excusing our misdeeds with false excuses meant to clear our consciences? When I finished the book, I also wondered, would there be a second? Would this be a series? There were a lot of unanswered questions? Would Emmett be haunted by his actions at the end? Would Sally find happiness? Wouldl Sarah understand how her own behavior might have influenced what happened to her brother Woolly? Does Billy keep searching for his mom? Does he ever find her? Does Emmet become a successful businessman and do Ulysses and Mr. Abernathy find happiness? Do scores have to be settled?
I loved the book with its constant twists and turns, with its character development and descriptions of each scene. I was always involved and interested, but the ending left me a bit wanting. Was this Lincoln Road, or even the rails, going to lead any of the characters to a happy ending as they hurtled toward their destinies? I thought that certain objects seemed so important that they, too, became characters in the novel, like the Studebaker, the little red book, the panda, the little bottle of “medicine” as well as the different timepieces and the fedora. I marveled at the amount of research that went into the book. Every human condition was explored, family relationships, abandonment, orphans, bullies, thugs, criminal minds, the war, the railroads, the roads themselves, family dynamics and more. Towles knowledge of the landscape and roads traveled, his awareness of the way a child thinks as opposed to an adult, the contrast of female and male characterizations, the presentation of anti-Semitism and racism, the observations about rich vs. poor upbringing, white vs. black lives, even in poverty, rural vs. city life, and the expressed insights into hope vs. despair, dreams vs. nightmares, justice vs. injustice, greed vs. kindness, ignorance vs. wisdom were all spot on. This is a story that covers so many personalities and the multitude of reasons for the way they developed. It will consistently draw you back into it, even with the many tangents and distractions that enter the narrative as the author focuses on one or another of them. This is also an audio that was highly enhanced by each of the narrator's interpretations of the scenes and the characters' personalities. Read it. show less
Towles has woven a story about the life of several young boys in the middle of the 20th century. Using the Lincoln Highway as the road to their future and as the vehicle to expose their secrets and dreams, he unravels an amazing tale. The Depression, the Holocaust, Prohibition, droughts, and all manner of crimes have occurred, the consequences of which reverberate from generation to generation. This story is at once hard to believe and yet highly plausible.
The characters are diverse in color, religion, background and behavior, but they are all suffering in one way or another and are all presumed to be in, or rapidly approaching, show more their late teens. As a teenager, Emmett Watson made a grave mistake. A wayward punch led to the death of a bully who was insulting the memory of his father, Charles Watson. Emmett paid for his crime and was on his way to start a new life after his father's death and the foreclosure proceedings for his dad's farm. Emmett wanted to go to Texas with his little brother, only 8 years old, to begin a career in carpentry and real estate. His brother Billy, however, wanted to go to San Francisco to search for his mother who has abandoned the family shortly after Billy’s birth.
While in the Salina reformatory, Emmett met Duchess and Woolly. Duchess, a chameleon able to take on many different personas, had been abandoned as a child and abused by his dad. He had no moral compass, seemed unaware of his wrongdoings, and constantly wove believable tales to excuse them. Woolly, from the upper class, was brought up with every luxury and coddled but ostracized because he -was simple-minded and took everything literally. He was, contrasted with Duchess, completely without guile. Sally, unspoken for, lived with her father who was busy ordering her around like a maid and accumulating real estate. She yearned to be free of his demands. Billy, at 8 years old was likely the brightest bulb in the group, but he was totally naïve, often creating more problems than solutions. His favorite book is “Professor Abacus Abernathe's Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers and Intrepid Travelers”. He uses it as his guide through life's many moments. He extrapolates solutions and offers advice to all, based on the wisdom of the characters within the book. Ulysses is a hobo who is instrumental in saving the lives of the Watson brothers. How he became a hobo involves the choices that he made, which he now regrets by choosing his lonely lifestyle. While his past and present choices were consequential, were they right or wrong? Townhouse, from Harlem, is aware of the rules of the street and their requirements to survive. He is a leader and in charge on the street. He and Emmett made a connection at Salina. There are many more characters entering and exiting the pages of the book as we travel with them on the historic Lincoln Highway. It goes from the Southwest in California, to the Northeast and New York. It was privately funded. The travels begin in Nebraska. Other influential characters are Professor Abernathe, Sarah, the sheriff, Sister Agnes, Kaitlin, the corrupt pastor, etc. They all play a vital role in the way Emmet’s life unfolds. They all symbolize unique bits of society’s good and evil. Each character views the same situation through different eyes and draws separate conclusions. Each character brings out some new flaw or benefit of the human condition and the way they interact in different situations.
At the end, one will ask, do we ever truly know someone else or understand their motives or their decisions? We will wonder what is right and wrong in different situations. We will think about those that always seem to be victims of circumstance. We will wonder about appropriate consequences for our decisions and actions. Do the punishments fit the crimes and mistakes? Are they arbitrary? Are they deserved? We might begin to question what is morality? Is revenge ever a suitable solution? What about suicide or the taking of drugs? Does our legal system that requires retribution actually accomplish anything positive? Is it all right to occasionally break the rules or do we fool ourselves by excusing our misdeeds with false excuses meant to clear our consciences? When I finished the book, I also wondered, would there be a second? Would this be a series? There were a lot of unanswered questions? Would Emmett be haunted by his actions at the end? Would Sally find happiness? Wouldl Sarah understand how her own behavior might have influenced what happened to her brother Woolly? Does Billy keep searching for his mom? Does he ever find her? Does Emmet become a successful businessman and do Ulysses and Mr. Abernathy find happiness? Do scores have to be settled?
I loved the book with its constant twists and turns, with its character development and descriptions of each scene. I was always involved and interested, but the ending left me a bit wanting. Was this Lincoln Road, or even the rails, going to lead any of the characters to a happy ending as they hurtled toward their destinies? I thought that certain objects seemed so important that they, too, became characters in the novel, like the Studebaker, the little red book, the panda, the little bottle of “medicine” as well as the different timepieces and the fedora. I marveled at the amount of research that went into the book. Every human condition was explored, family relationships, abandonment, orphans, bullies, thugs, criminal minds, the war, the railroads, the roads themselves, family dynamics and more. Towles knowledge of the landscape and roads traveled, his awareness of the way a child thinks as opposed to an adult, the contrast of female and male characterizations, the presentation of anti-Semitism and racism, the observations about rich vs. poor upbringing, white vs. black lives, even in poverty, rural vs. city life, and the expressed insights into hope vs. despair, dreams vs. nightmares, justice vs. injustice, greed vs. kindness, ignorance vs. wisdom were all spot on. This is a story that covers so many personalities and the multitude of reasons for the way they developed. It will consistently draw you back into it, even with the many tangents and distractions that enter the narrative as the author focuses on one or another of them. This is also an audio that was highly enhanced by each of the narrator's interpretations of the scenes and the characters' personalities. Read it. show less
The title says it—The Lincoln Highway. It was the first coast-to-coast route in America, named for the president who led the fight to keep the nation united, stretching from New York's Times Square to San Francisco's Lincoln Park. Driving across the country was an epic adventure when the highway was built in the teens and twenties. By the early 1950s, the time of Amor Towles' book titled for the route, the tour was not as epic, but nevertheless it was an adventure.
The Lincoln Highway, the book, is a "road novel", a quintessentially 20th-century American form, the essence of which is exploration and adventure. The youngest of Towles' adventurers totes the guidebook, refers to it often, and shares its information with anyone who'll show more listen. Professor Abacus Abernathe' Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers has 26 chapters extolling the accomplishments of 25 adventurous travelers, real and imagined. Among its exemplars are Achilles, Galileo, Hercules, Ishmael, Jason, Lincoln, Sinbad, and Ulysses. (The 26th chapter, titled You, is for the reader to write his or her own story.)
The journey on the Lincoln Highway will begin in Morgen, Nebraska, and carry two brothers west to either Texas or California. The pair, 18-year-old Emmett Watson and 8-year-old Billy, are leaving their home following their father's death and the bank's foreclosure on the house and farm. (Their mother abandoned the family years earlier, fleeing west along the same route, all the way to San Francisco.) Their transport will be Emmett's blue 1948 Studebaker Land Cruiser, which was stored in the barn while it's owner was serving time in a juvenile detention facility in Kansas. Emmett, taunted by a bully, punched him out, and when the bully fell, he hit his head on a cement block and died. Charged with involuntary manslaughter, Emmett ended up incarcerated, but has been released early, driven across two states by the warden to his home.
As the brothers check out the Studie one last time, two figures greet them from the Barn doorway. Uh oh. The two are fellow inmates who stowed away in the trunk of the warden's car. They—Duchess and Woolly— are looking for transportation to New York, and they can see Emmett has got it. Duchess and Woolly are hopeful, optimistic. Emmett is infuriated. He does agree to shuttle them east to Omaha's train station. Then…
—You mean the Studebacker?
Emmett was standing alone in Sister Agnes's office talking to Sally on the phone.
—Yes, he said. The Studebaker.
—And Duchess took it?
—Yes.
There was silence on the other end of the line.
—I don't understand, she said. Took it where?
—To New York.
—New York, New York?
—Yes. New York, New York.
—And you're in Lewis.
—Nearly.
—I thought you were going to California. Why are you nearly in Lewis? And why is Duchess on his way to New York?
Here's why. Woolly's given name is Wallace Wolcott Martin. He's the scion of an old-money family with a home on the upper east side of Manhattan as well as a property in the Adirondacks, to which they retire in the summer months. They call it a "camp" though it isn't a clearing in a forest with a campfire site surrounded by spots where tents are set up. Rather, it is a mansion with "rustic"—wink wink—decor. Great-grandfather's office there has a sturdy wall safe, wherein $150,000 in cash is stacked, and Woolly perceives it to be his inheritance. He plans to split the cash evenly amongst himself, his friend Duchess, and the guy with the car who'll drive them to the camp (from Nebraska), Emmett.
With the appearance of Duchess, the story's rich seam of the picaresque is exposed. Duchess is a rogue, but appealing adventurer if ever there was one in a novel. He checks most of the boxes on the list of a picaresque character's traits.
• He's of low social class, but can be very charming and gets by on his wits.
• He narrates "his" chapters.
• To him, the trip is just a series of adventures.
• His character isn't altered in the narrative's course; he ends as he began.
• As he sees himself, criminality isn't in him. Yes, he's a rascal, but a carefree, sympathetic rascal.
Read this book. It is long and rambling and tangled with digressions. The characters are many: endearing, inspiring, annoying, self-centered, provoking, duplicitous. Most have stories to tell, and they tell them. It's a road trip, gosh darn it. show less
The Lincoln Highway, the book, is a "road novel", a quintessentially 20th-century American form, the essence of which is exploration and adventure. The youngest of Towles' adventurers totes the guidebook, refers to it often, and shares its information with anyone who'll show more listen. Professor Abacus Abernathe' Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers has 26 chapters extolling the accomplishments of 25 adventurous travelers, real and imagined. Among its exemplars are Achilles, Galileo, Hercules, Ishmael, Jason, Lincoln, Sinbad, and Ulysses. (The 26th chapter, titled You, is for the reader to write his or her own story.)
The journey on the Lincoln Highway will begin in Morgen, Nebraska, and carry two brothers west to either Texas or California. The pair, 18-year-old Emmett Watson and 8-year-old Billy, are leaving their home following their father's death and the bank's foreclosure on the house and farm. (Their mother abandoned the family years earlier, fleeing west along the same route, all the way to San Francisco.) Their transport will be Emmett's blue 1948 Studebaker Land Cruiser, which was stored in the barn while it's owner was serving time in a juvenile detention facility in Kansas. Emmett, taunted by a bully, punched him out, and when the bully fell, he hit his head on a cement block and died. Charged with involuntary manslaughter, Emmett ended up incarcerated, but has been released early, driven across two states by the warden to his home.
As the brothers check out the Studie one last time, two figures greet them from the Barn doorway. Uh oh. The two are fellow inmates who stowed away in the trunk of the warden's car. They—Duchess and Woolly— are looking for transportation to New York, and they can see Emmett has got it. Duchess and Woolly are hopeful, optimistic. Emmett is infuriated. He does agree to shuttle them east to Omaha's train station. Then…
—You mean the Studebacker?
Emmett was standing alone in Sister Agnes's office talking to Sally on the phone.
—Yes, he said. The Studebaker.
—And Duchess took it?
—Yes.
There was silence on the other end of the line.
—I don't understand, she said. Took it where?
—To New York.
—New York, New York?
—Yes. New York, New York.
—And you're in Lewis.
—Nearly.
—I thought you were going to California. Why are you nearly in Lewis? And why is Duchess on his way to New York?
Here's why. Woolly's given name is Wallace Wolcott Martin. He's the scion of an old-money family with a home on the upper east side of Manhattan as well as a property in the Adirondacks, to which they retire in the summer months. They call it a "camp" though it isn't a clearing in a forest with a campfire site surrounded by spots where tents are set up. Rather, it is a mansion with "rustic"—wink wink—decor. Great-grandfather's office there has a sturdy wall safe, wherein $150,000 in cash is stacked, and Woolly perceives it to be his inheritance. He plans to split the cash evenly amongst himself, his friend Duchess, and the guy with the car who'll drive them to the camp (from Nebraska), Emmett.
With the appearance of Duchess, the story's rich seam of the picaresque is exposed. Duchess is a rogue, but appealing adventurer if ever there was one in a novel. He checks most of the boxes on the list of a picaresque character's traits.
• He's of low social class, but can be very charming and gets by on his wits.
• He narrates "his" chapters.
• To him, the trip is just a series of adventures.
• His character isn't altered in the narrative's course; he ends as he began.
• As he sees himself, criminality isn't in him. Yes, he's a rascal, but a carefree, sympathetic rascal.
Read this book. It is long and rambling and tangled with digressions. The characters are many: endearing, inspiring, annoying, self-centered, provoking, duplicitous. Most have stories to tell, and they tell them. It's a road trip, gosh darn it. show less
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Author Information
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Amor Towles grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College and received an M.A. in English from Stanford University where he was a Scowcroft Fellow. His novel, "Rules of Civility" reached the bestseller lists of The New York Times, the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. The book was rated by The Wall Street Journal as one of the show more ten best works of fiction in 2011. The book has been published in 15 languages. In the fall of 2012, the novel was optioned to be made into a feature film. Viking/Penguin published Towles's next novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, on September 6, 2016. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Lincoln Highway
- Original title
- The Lincoln Highway
- Original publication date
- 2021
- People/Characters
- Emmett Watson; Billy Watson; Duchess Hewett; Wallace Wolcott "Woolly" Martin; Sally Ransom; Ulysses Dixon (show all 13); Pastor John; Warden Ackerly; Townhouse; Sarah Whitney; Harrison Hewett; Abacus Abernathe; Dennis Whitney
- Important places
- Morgen, Nebraska, USA; Illinois, USA; Ames, Iowa, USA; Indiana, USA; New York, USA; New York, New York, USA (show all 7); Lincoln Highway, USA
- Epigraph
- The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness,
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long, empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
Against all this, Youth . . .
—O Pioneers, Willa Cather - Dedication
- My brother Stokly
And
My sister Kimbrough - First words
- JUNE 12, 1954—The drive from Salina to Morgen was three hours, and for much of it, Emmett hadn't said a word.
- Quotations
- He knew too that he had been an agent of misfortune rather than its author. But he didn't agree that his debt had been paid in full. For no matter how much chance had played a role, when by your hands you have brought another... (show all) man's time on earth to its end, to prove to the Almighty that you are worthy of his mercy, that shouldn't take any less time than the rest of your life.
... through our misdeeds we may put ourselves in another person’s debt, just as through their misdeeds they put themselves in ours. And since it’s these debts – those we’ve incurred and those we’re owed – that ke... (show all)ep us stirring and stewing in the early hours, the only way to get a good night’s sleep is to balance the accounts.
Regardless of who had been provoked by who, or whom by whom, when Emmett hit the Snyder kid at the county fair, he took on a debt just as surely as his father had when he had mortgaged the family farm.
I don’t blame Him. Whom I blame is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and every other man who’s served as priest or preacher since.
To Emmett, all the houses in this part of the country looked like they'd been dropped from the sky. The Watson house just looked like it'd had a rougher landing. The roof line sagged on either side of the chimney and the wind... (show all)ow frames were slanted just enough that half the windows wouldn't quite open and the other half wouldn't quite shut.
Emmett could hear his father stirring in the next room, unable to sleep—and not without reason. Because a farmer with a mortgage was like a man walking on the railing of a bridge with his arms outstretched and his eyes clos... (show all)ed. It was a way of life in which the difference between abundance and ruin could be measured by a few inches of rain or a few nights of frost.
Boys, she would begin in her motherly way, in your time you shall do wrong unto others and others shall do wrong unto you. And these opposing wrongs will become your chains. The wrongs you have done unto others wil... (show all)l be bound to you in the form of guilt, and the wrongs that others have done unto you in the form of indignation. The teachings of Jesus Christ Our Savior are there to free you from both. To free you from your guilt through atonement and from your indignation through forgiveness. Only once you have freed yourself from both of these chains may you begin to live your life with love in your heart and serenity in your step.
What wisdom the Lord does not see fit to endow us with at birth, He provides through the gift of experience.
—In that man's heart, said Ulysses, sliding the door shut, there is more treachery than preachery.
Oh, he enjoyed delivering that little speech. Standing there with his legs apart and his feet planted firmly on the ground, he acted as if he could draw his strength straight from the land because he owned it.
I felt bad for him. Not man enough to be a man, or child enough to be a child, not black enough to be black, or white enough to be white, Maurice just couldn't seem to find his place in the world.
—Questions can be so tricky, he said, like forks in the road. You can be having such a nice conversation and someone will raise a question, and the next thing you know you're headed off in a whole new direction. In all prob... (show all)ability, this new road will lead you to places that are perfectly agreeable, but sometimes you just want to go in the direction you were already headed.
—Have you ever noticed, he said, have you ever noticed how so many questions begin with the letter W?
He counted them off on his fingers.
—Who. What. Why. When. Where. Which.
He could see his sister's conc... (show all)ern and uncertainty lifting for a moment as she smiled at this fascinating little fact.
—Isn't that interesting? he continued. I mean, how do you think that happened? All those centuries ago when words were first being coined, what was it about the sound of the W that made the word coiners use it for all of the questions? As opposed to say, the T or the P? It makes you feel sort of sorry for W, doesn't it? I mean, it's a pretty big burden to carry. Especially since half the time when someone asks you a question with a W, they aren't really asking you a question. They're making a statement in disguise. Like, like ...
—When are you going to grow up! And Why would you do such a thing! And What in God's name were you thinking!
Well, imagine all you like. It won't cost you nothing, and it'll cost me less. But later that night, after I'd served the chili, cleaned the kitchen, and switched off the lights, I knelt at the side of my bed, clasped my hand... (show all)s together, and prayed. Dear Lord, I said, please give my father the wisdom to be gracious, the heart to be generous, and the courage to ask for this woman's hand in holy matrimony—so that someone else can do his cooking and cleaning for a change.
Billy and Woolly both had big smiles on their faces, while Emmett, per usual, was acting like smiles were a precious resource.
Wouldn't it have been wonderful, thought Woolly, if everybody's life was like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle. Then no one person's life would ever be an inconvenience to anyone else's. It would just fit snugly in its very own, sp... (show all)ecially designed spot, and in so doing, would enable the whole intricate picture to become complete.
Many years before, Abacus had come to the conclusion that the greatest of heroic stories have the shape of a diamond on its side.
As Emmett walked out the door and climbed into his bright yellow car, I thought to myself that there are surely a lot of big things in America. The Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty are big. The Mississippi Rive... (show all)r and the Grand Canyon are big. The skies over the prairie are big. But there is nothing bigger than a man's opinion of himself.
Plain speaking and common sense. In my book, there's just no substitute. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And when the final chime sounded, I turned to them all in order to utter with my very last breath, The rest is silence, just as Hamlet had.
Or was that Iago?
I never could remember. - Blurbers
- French, Tana
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- English US
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