The Lincoln Highway

Newly released from juvenile detention, Emmett Watson finds nothing waiting for him but his little brother—and two friends who have escaped in the trunk of a car: Duchess, a born con man, and Wooly who claims that a large fortune awaits him in New York. They convince Emmett to go east on the Lincoln Highway, the Rt. 66 of the north rather than the west.

Told from many viewpoints, this picaresque adventure is hard to put down. I do love great historical research.

The Lincoln Highway is the 1950s American version of The Odyssey with all the temptations, dangers, and dilemmas.

In the aftermath of their father’s death and foreclosure of the family farm, 18-year old, Emmett, a recent reform school inmate, takes on the role of reluctant hero steering his ship—a blue Studebaker—down the Lincoln Highway bound for California, with his 8-year-old brother Billy in the role of sidekick, navigator, and moral compass.

I am a sucker for a road trip yarn and Towles weaves a rollicking adventure chock full of believable unbelievable characters and inevitable, unavoidable twists and turns that left… show more.

After I read Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow, I became hooked on this author’s work, and The Lincoln Highway did not disappoint.

I loved the quirky, memorable characters and creative story with peculiar twists and turns, not to mention Towles’ beautiful writing. I felt as though I was right there beside them on that wild and wacky road trip across the USA.

After reading Towles’s book, A Gentleman in Moscow, I fell in love with his voice and writing style.

Set in 1954, The Lincoln Highway follows the fate of two orphaned brothers, Emmet and Billy, who decide to start their lives over again in California. But fate has other plans for them when two of Emmet’s friends wedge their way into the brothers’ plans.

Instead of traveling west on the Lincoln Highway, they end up in New York at a vacation home. The final chapter of this book is one of the most perfectly rendered conclusions I’ve ever read.

This novel was a Christmas gift from someone who knows I love a good road story and an excellent historical coming-of-age tale – and the title promised just that.

The Lincoln Highway was America’s first interstate road; I had studied it, heard about it from my grandfather, and I had lived near it, where it goes through southern Wyoming. I moved the gift book to the top of the pile and read it exclusively until I finished it. I am generally not monogamous when it comes to books – I read several at once, but Towles’ novel demanded my full… show more.

Reading The Lincoln Highway is like taking a road trip in 1954 with Emmett, newly released from an undeserved incarceration in juvenile detention, and his eight-year-old precocious brother, Billy, as they attempt to journey west for a fresh start.

Amor Towles is a master of storytelling, creating a memorable cast of characters with hints of heroes and legends. The obstacles that Emmett encounters—some tragic, some comical—threaten his goal to provide a promising future for Billy and test his resolve to do what’s right. It’s a can’t-put-it-down, stay-in-your-mind novel that has become one of my favorite-evers.

A road novel in the best tradition. The characters are believable, and at times, it is sad and hilarious at the same time. They are all little unsung heroes in their own right. I love his other two novels, and he has a beautiful command of the language and is a great narrator.

I’ve always loved the pluck and endurance of Ulysses, and this 2021 road-trip novel could almost be The Odyssey transposed into the worlds of Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, and Catcher in the Rye.

At its heart is Emmet Watson, recently released from a Kansas juvenile detention center and determined to use his dead father’s modest bequest to become a man of property. His younger brother Billy, though, convinces Emmet to suspend his plans and, as a pair, hit the Lincoln Highway towards California to find their runaway mother.

Billy’s poignant hopes for a family reunion run afoul of… show more.