Book Review: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Narrator: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
Published by Penguin Audio on October 5, 2021
Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Pages: 576
Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
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Overal Rating:

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 multilayered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.

This was on my TBR pile since April, when I read A Gentleman in Moscow, and I completely loved it.

I started The Lincoln Highway without knowing too much about it beforehand, trusting that Amor Towles would surprise me with a beautifully told story and memorable characters. And it worked out that way, but I couldn’t give it 5 stars like I gave A Gentleman in Moscow.

Emmet is back from a juvenile work camp after committing involuntary manslaughter. He has lost everything in life except for his little brother, his car, and some money their father left them after he died. Decided to end with the old, they intend to drive to California and start a new life. One of the issues some people had with this book is that we get a premise that won’t be fulfilled in the least, because two characters, who escaped from the juvenile work camp, will propose to piggyback on Emmet’s plans, but will derail them completely. Like Emmet, I found Duchess extremely frustrating, inserting himself in anything you try to attempt and screwing everything up by supporting his reasoning on a false sense of justice. After a while of Duchess’s shenanigans, I got used to how this story was going to be, a story without a compass, a story at Duchess’s whim.

There are memorable moments in the book, and Emmet and Billy encounter endearing characters that will greatly affect their trip. Despite the setbacks caused by Duchess, this is a story of hope, of beginnings, of dreams coming true.

This book features a choral narration, offering at least five different voices. This results in not just one main character but several who participate in the escapade, which seems to be the main character of this story. Possibly due to this, we don’t get to see real growth in any of the characters, at least the main ones. Although most get what they seek, not seeing real growth feels like cheating.

I’m not fond of the last scene of the book. Without giving away too much, giving almost everyone what they seek and wronging one of the characters seemed like an easy exit.

I would say this is one of those books where the journey is more important than the destination, literally and figuratively.

I listened to the audio version, and the narration was exquisite. Having different narrators for some of the voices was a nice touch, and the main narrator excelled at voicing and interpreting the various characters.

Story (Plot)
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