The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
ARC from Penguin House Audio
Book Blurb:
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year 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 pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west 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.
My Review: 4.5 stars
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles is the most perfect example of what a character driven novel should look like. The creativity is genius, the vocabulary exemplary and adventure is endless.
I did not have a clue as to what this book held in store. I went with the fact that it was by the celebrated author Amor Towles, so I knew I’d want to read it as it was going to be a best-seller. And I was right; to date it’s been on the NY Times best-seller list for four weeks. I had the opportunity to listen to this book which was an overall joy. I’m a huge fan of the narrator Eadoardo Ballerini, but at times got a little overwhelmed as I’d just finished Eternal which shares the same narrator.
The story starts with Emmett coming home from a stint at a work farm and being reunited with his precocious and wickedly smart eight-year-old brother. Unbeknownst to Emmett, two inmates have snuck a ride in the warden’s trunk and cause unexpected upheaval when they show themselves. As the four of them set out to their destinations, they each have different ideas of where they’re going and how they’ll get there. Covering just ten days time in 576 pages, you can imagine the crazy circumstances they find themselves in.
There is a beautiful story book that Billy, the young brother is reading, that takes on great meaning as the story plows ahead. The cast of characters is endless, and you’ll find yourself humored by some and utterly annoyed by others. This book celebrates America is a great work of fiction that will appeal to both women and men alike.
Quotes I liked:
That’s the sort of thing young people do: fan the flames of each other’s expectations—until the necessities of life begin to make themselves known.”
“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, specially designed spot, and in so doing, would enable the whole intricate picture to become complete.”
“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 River 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.”
“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 probability, 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.”
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