The Lincoln Highway: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
More than ONE MILLION copies sold
A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick
A New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Readers’ Choice Best Book of the Century, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year
“Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club
“A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR
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 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.
More than ONE MILLION copies sold
A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick
A New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Readers’ Choice Best Book of the Century, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year
“Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club
“A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR
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 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.
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Community Reviews
Again, I wish I could give this one 4 1/2 stars...
What’s it about?
Emmett Watson is 18 years-old when he is driven back to Salinas, Kansas by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has been serving out his sentence. It is 1954 and Emmett has been released early, after the death of his father, to take care of his younger brother Billy. Unbeknownst to Emmett or the warden two of Emmett’s bunkmates (Duchess and Woolly) from the work farm have stowed away in the trunk of the warden’s car. Duchess and Wooly have their own plans for the future…
What did it make me think about?
Amor Towles writes a good story.
Should I read it?
Just suspend your disbelief and go along for the ride on this one. The Lincoln Highway is a story full of unique characters that takes place over a span of 10 days. Each chapter leaves you wanting to know what will happen to these boys next. This novel will please almost any reader.
Quote-
“When you are asked a question- even a question that on the verge seems relatively simple and straightforward- you may have to go quite a ways back in order to provide all the little details that will be necessary for someone to make sense of your answer. Despite this, there are many inquisitors who, as soon as you start providing these essential details, will start to make a face. They’ll fidget in their seat. Then they’ll do their best to hurry you along by pressing you to leap from point A to point Z while skipping all the letters in between. But not Professor Abernathy. When he asked Billy a deceptively simple question and Billy went all the way back to the cradle in order to give a comprehensive reply, the professor leaned back in his chair and listened with he attentiveness of Soloman.”
What’s it about?
Emmett Watson is 18 years-old when he is driven back to Salinas, Kansas by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has been serving out his sentence. It is 1954 and Emmett has been released early, after the death of his father, to take care of his younger brother Billy. Unbeknownst to Emmett or the warden two of Emmett’s bunkmates (Duchess and Woolly) from the work farm have stowed away in the trunk of the warden’s car. Duchess and Wooly have their own plans for the future…
What did it make me think about?
Amor Towles writes a good story.
Should I read it?
Just suspend your disbelief and go along for the ride on this one. The Lincoln Highway is a story full of unique characters that takes place over a span of 10 days. Each chapter leaves you wanting to know what will happen to these boys next. This novel will please almost any reader.
Quote-
“When you are asked a question- even a question that on the verge seems relatively simple and straightforward- you may have to go quite a ways back in order to provide all the little details that will be necessary for someone to make sense of your answer. Despite this, there are many inquisitors who, as soon as you start providing these essential details, will start to make a face. They’ll fidget in their seat. Then they’ll do their best to hurry you along by pressing you to leap from point A to point Z while skipping all the letters in between. But not Professor Abernathy. When he asked Billy a deceptively simple question and Billy went all the way back to the cradle in order to give a comprehensive reply, the professor leaned back in his chair and listened with he attentiveness of Soloman.”
The Lincoln Highway is a great combination of beautifully written literature with allusions to classical mythology. All this is woven into a really good and a little bit nostalgic story with unforgettable characters who are not as clear-cut as they appear on the surface.
Beyond the classic “hero’s journey” there are strong themes of justice along with family and philosophical musings about the shape of a life, work, making each day memorable and so much more.
The multiple and sometimes overlapping perspectives mess with the mind just a bit and make the stories even better. And the chapters from Duchess's point of few give a glimpse into the mind of the most conflicted character. It becomes clear that his own actions don't gibe with the person he tells himself and us he is.
I've seen this book compared to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and I must agree. Both of these books are among my all time favorites and either one could be a contender for the "Great American Road Trip" novel or even just the "Great American Novel".
*Spoiler Alert--The ending and what might have happened beyond the end of the book....
Oh, if only Duchess were more patient! He could have thrown a shirt or even a small rock on the money to have kept it from blowing away and then just patiently waited until that wind slowly blew him to a shore. His fatal flaws of impatience and impetuousness were just that -- fatal.
Beyond the end....(at least in one scenario) Emmett, Billy and Sally continue the escapade, this time, going the right way on the Lincoln Highway. They don't even bother stopping in Morgen. It's on to San Francisco to start flipping houses. Sally sticks around once they get there to help cook and clean -- for practical reasons; it makes sense to save money and she is bonded to Billy (and of course to Emmett). Let's think that she can even help in the house flipping kind of like an early Joanna Gaines. However, over time, the day to day routines of work and home bind Sally and Emmett and together with Billy, they form their own family unit based on mid-western values and a shared background. Who knows, maybe Emmett and Billy's old house that Sally's father bought could factor into their future.
Mom -- well, she probably didn't even stick around San Francisco...so the boys do go to the fireworks, but she's not there. Most times when a mother leaves her family, she doesn't find the fame, fortune or good life she imagined. She either hit hard times, hooked up with a loser or maybe reconnected with the family she left behind back east. Following and finding their mother could be an entire new book.
Professor Abernathy finally had his own adventures riding the rails with Ulysses. With his smarts and resourcefulness, I like to think they he helped Ulysses find and reunite with his wife and son before going back to the Empire State Building to write his own "Y Chapter". I love that he throws a expanding bump into his own diamond shaped life experience.
And now, one excerpt I can't stop thinking about...maybe because I'm 62 and sense that my life's trajectory has begun to narrow.....
“Many years before, Abacus had come to the conclusion that the greatest of heroic stories have the shape of a diamond on its side. Beginning at a fine point, the life of the hero expands outward through youth as he begins to establish his strengths and fallibilities, his friendships and enmities. Proceeding into the world, he pursues exploits in grand company, accumulating honors and accolades. But at some untold moment, the two rays that define the outer limits of this widening world of hale companions and worthy adventures simultaneously turn a corner and begin to converge. The terrain our hero travels, the cast of characters he meets, the sense of purpose that has long propelled him forward all begin to narrow—to narrow toward that fixed and inexorable point that defines his fate.
But one day, one day years after the convergence has begun, you cannot only sense the inward trajectory of the walls, you can begin to see the terminal point in the offing even as the terrain that remains before you begins to shrink at an accelerating pace. Three infirmities amount to the same sentence: the narrowing of life at the far tip of the diamond and finally to a single room where, blinded, breathless, forgetful, they are destined to end their days.”
Beyond the classic “hero’s journey” there are strong themes of justice along with family and philosophical musings about the shape of a life, work, making each day memorable and so much more.
The multiple and sometimes overlapping perspectives mess with the mind just a bit and make the stories even better. And the chapters from Duchess's point of few give a glimpse into the mind of the most conflicted character. It becomes clear that his own actions don't gibe with the person he tells himself and us he is.
I've seen this book compared to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and I must agree. Both of these books are among my all time favorites and either one could be a contender for the "Great American Road Trip" novel or even just the "Great American Novel".
*Spoiler Alert--The ending and what might have happened beyond the end of the book....
Oh, if only Duchess were more patient! He could have thrown a shirt or even a small rock on the money to have kept it from blowing away and then just patiently waited until that wind slowly blew him to a shore. His fatal flaws of impatience and impetuousness were just that -- fatal.
Beyond the end....(at least in one scenario) Emmett, Billy and Sally continue the escapade, this time, going the right way on the Lincoln Highway. They don't even bother stopping in Morgen. It's on to San Francisco to start flipping houses. Sally sticks around once they get there to help cook and clean -- for practical reasons; it makes sense to save money and she is bonded to Billy (and of course to Emmett). Let's think that she can even help in the house flipping kind of like an early Joanna Gaines. However, over time, the day to day routines of work and home bind Sally and Emmett and together with Billy, they form their own family unit based on mid-western values and a shared background. Who knows, maybe Emmett and Billy's old house that Sally's father bought could factor into their future.
Mom -- well, she probably didn't even stick around San Francisco...so the boys do go to the fireworks, but she's not there. Most times when a mother leaves her family, she doesn't find the fame, fortune or good life she imagined. She either hit hard times, hooked up with a loser or maybe reconnected with the family she left behind back east. Following and finding their mother could be an entire new book.
Professor Abernathy finally had his own adventures riding the rails with Ulysses. With his smarts and resourcefulness, I like to think they he helped Ulysses find and reunite with his wife and son before going back to the Empire State Building to write his own "Y Chapter". I love that he throws a expanding bump into his own diamond shaped life experience.
And now, one excerpt I can't stop thinking about...maybe because I'm 62 and sense that my life's trajectory has begun to narrow.....
“Many years before, Abacus had come to the conclusion that the greatest of heroic stories have the shape of a diamond on its side. Beginning at a fine point, the life of the hero expands outward through youth as he begins to establish his strengths and fallibilities, his friendships and enmities. Proceeding into the world, he pursues exploits in grand company, accumulating honors and accolades. But at some untold moment, the two rays that define the outer limits of this widening world of hale companions and worthy adventures simultaneously turn a corner and begin to converge. The terrain our hero travels, the cast of characters he meets, the sense of purpose that has long propelled him forward all begin to narrow—to narrow toward that fixed and inexorable point that defines his fate.
But one day, one day years after the convergence has begun, you cannot only sense the inward trajectory of the walls, you can begin to see the terminal point in the offing even as the terrain that remains before you begins to shrink at an accelerating pace. Three infirmities amount to the same sentence: the narrowing of life at the far tip of the diamond and finally to a single room where, blinded, breathless, forgetful, they are destined to end their days.”
I read The Lincoln Highway with my in-person book-club and, as we haven’t met to discuss it yet, I’ll simply say that my overall impression is one of warmth tinged with sadness.
This novel, told against the backdrop of 1950s America, presents several complex and flawed characters whose motivations and decisions I’m still processing. The conclusion, though largely satisfying, challenges my own notions of morality and justice. I’m looking forward to discussing this with friends, and will probably revisit this review afterwards.
This novel, told against the backdrop of 1950s America, presents several complex and flawed characters whose motivations and decisions I’m still processing. The conclusion, though largely satisfying, challenges my own notions of morality and justice. I’m looking forward to discussing this with friends, and will probably revisit this review afterwards.
I loved this book. I have read various reviews criticizing the style, character development, and tone of the novel— but I very much enjoyed it.
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