Book Review: The Lincoln Highway

I may be late to the party with this one. The buzz is there; I just never followed the buzz. When I discovered it in audio form, I gave in to the accolades. I think my old book club read this. They read either The Lincoln Highway or A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (both acclaimed titles). It was long, at 16-1/2 hours, yet I never lost interest in the story. It felt ambling, but kept me invested enough in the characters.

The Lincoln Highway follows a quest or journey format. 18-year-old Emmett Watson is returning to his family farm after a stint in a juvenile detention facility (involuntary manslaughter). Upon arrival, he discovers his recently-deceased father lost the farm in foreclosure. Emmett wants nothing more than to pick up his 8-year-old brother and set off to make a new life. Unfortunately, two other juvenile delinquents hitched a ride in the warden's trunk and have a plan of their own. Their plan relies on Emmett's car (the only possession Emmett can claim as his own) and a stash of money Emmett's father hid away, intended for his sons.

One sentence in the back cover blurb enticed me: "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." Boy, did this book live up to that hype! I enjoyed the distinct voices of the various narrators. We hear feisty, determined Sally and mischievous, flamboyant Duchess in first person. But the other characters (Emmett, Billy, Ulysses, Professor Abercrombe) come through with their own voice despite their third person narrations. 

I believe this would provide for an interesting discussion in a book club setting. Besides the layers of motivations driving the characters, you have many passages revealing deep, life truths. I would even love discussing the author's method of story-telling. Perhaps I'm alone in my reaction to the ending. It was clever, yet I yearned for more redemption and resolution of the journey/quest. Having enjoyed this read, I might be more apt to consider the best-selling Moscow title. Who knows!

Although I didn't mark this with a content caution, it included occasional language and a brief scene in a brothel (no graphic details).