My book club read The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles earlier this year, but I passed it up because I was in the middle of something else. Also, if I’m going to be honest, I found another one of his books, A Gentleman in Moscow, to be interesting but slow. However, my book club raved about The Lincoln Highway, so when I saw it on sale at Barnes and Noble, I picked it up. Wow, am I glad I did.
Premise
In The Lincoln Highway, Towles (anyone know how to pronounce this last name?) gives readers a refreshing, thoughtful, and entertaining interpretation of The Hero’s Journey. The novel opens with Emmett Watson in 1950s Nebraska, riding home in the warden’s car after completing a stint at a work camp for young men. Emmett’s father has died and his first act as a free man is to sign over the family farm to the bank. This could be a terribly sad situation, but Emmett, and his little brother Billy, don’t want to stay on the farm. They have their eyes set on California and are eager to start a new life.
Enter Duchess and Woolly, two of Emmett’s “friends” from the work camp who stowed away in the warden’s trunk.
What I liked
One chapter in, and I was committed to The Lincoln Highway. Towles deftly plants many questions, keeping readers hooked. (Why was Emmett at the work camp? What are Duchess and Woolly up to? You know it can’t be good. WHY are their names Duchess and Wooley? Where is Emmett’s mother?) Using multiple points of view, Towles follows the Watson boys on quite an adventure that does not lead them to California, but instead to New York City and the beginning of The Lincoln Highway. (It’s supposedly a real thing.)
Towles also gives readers a fascinating cast of characters, from the precocious nine-year-old Billy, to the sassy and stubborn Sally, to the self-absorbed and impulsive Duchess. Each POV brings new insight into the events of the story, and each has a distinct voice. Duchess frustrated me throughout the novel. He makes terrible decisions with little regard for how they will affect other people. And yet, I found his voice the most entertaining. Here’s a sample:
After getting Billy to write out a shopping list of all the ingredients we would need, we were off to Arthur Avenue, driving at a speed of three hundred questions an hour.
- -What’s Arthur Avenue, Duchess?
- It’s the main drag in the Italian section of the Bronx, Billy
- -What’s an Italian section?
- -It’s where all the Italian’s live.
- -Why do all the Italians live in one place?
- -So they can mind each other’s business.
Towles arranges words with a refreshing and beautiful style. I wish I had highlighted every passage I found particularly eloquent – the pages of my copy of The Lincoln Highway would be quite colorful!
The theme of The Hero’s Journey shines through not only in the plot points of the novel. Throughout the journey, Billie totes around a large book on classic heroes – Ulysses, Achilles, etc. What he learns and admires about the heroes in the book underscores what we learn about the characters in The Lincoln Highway and helps us think about whether or not they qualify as heroes. The Lincoln Highway explores human nature, specifically our ability to break away from our personal history to become better. It also encourages readers to think about how and why people see things differently.
What I didn’t like
I mean, I didn’t often like Duchess, but I don’t think I’m supposed to. He’s the kind of character who elicits irritation and compassion at the same time, and that takes talent from the author. Truly. The Lincoln Highway gets a five star rating from me.
Recommendation
If you like historical fiction or literary fiction that explores human nature, or if you enjoy a good Hero’s Journey, try The Lincoln Highway.
Have you read The Lincoln Highway? What did you think? Does anyone have any thoughts on what is going on with Woolly? I was trying to diagnose him the entire book, which maybe says something about me.
Thanks for getting nerdy with me!
Five stars??? I’ll have to bump up Lincoln Highway in my reading queue!
Enjoyed your comments about Lincoln Highway and Demon Copperhead. I loved Lincoln Highway and am not very far into DC, but I’m hooked!
DC is a reading commitment, but I hope you make it through. It’s worth it.