Books: The Lincoln Highway By Amor Towles (2021)

“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.”

For the most part, The Lincoln Highway works for me. I like Towles’ work, as he has rich imagination and prose style all his own. But the book left me a bit confused. Mostly, I thought, this was about Emmett and his brother Billy leaving to California for a new, fresh start and thus they were the main characters here. However, much more of the book, it seems, is Duchess and Woolly’s story. Sure, Emmett is just one character amongst the others, and the book is told through multiple points of view, yet about a quarter way through the tome, I felt the storyline was disconnecting me. Perhaps after my enjoyment out of his two previous novels set me to want to adore this epic tale, but I felt a lot happened over a nine day or so period that seems rather amazing, considering it is set in 1954 and Lincoln Highway (which is real and still exists in the 21^st Century) was not the super fast roads of today. Or that the side characters like Sally, Ulysses, and Abacus, are not really vital to plot. It was also obvious Sally was merely there to make sure there was a woman in the book. Anyways, at times, these unfocused parts made the book feel bloated.

Of course, what I write above does not mean this book is all bad. I still enjoy Towles's writing, even if I felt not connected to the story fully. Much like his two previous books, he offers bits of wisdom wrapped up in some silly, sometimes, slapstick humor. It works for a while, but I guess I was expecting more. I’m disappointed in myself for assuming all his books were brilliant.