The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Amor Towles’ newest novel, The Lincoln Highway, is an engaging combination of Boys’ Own magazine and Homeric epic, and decidedly different from either of his earlier novels, Rules of Civility (ho hum) and A Gentleman in Moscow (delightful).
In the summer of 1954, Emmett Watson, newly released from a juvenile work camp, travels home to pick up his precocious younger brother, Billy, and drive to California for a fresh start.
But before the brothers finish packing the car, Emmett discovers two of his buddies from the work farm lurking in the barn, and Duchess and Woolly suggest a detour to New York. The lure is one hundred fifty thousand dollars which belongs to Woolly (sort of).
Against his better judgement, Emmett agrees to drive to New York. On the ensuing ten-day quest, the boys encounter wanderers, scoundrels, innocents, and heroes and challenges both absurd and deadly.
I liked this rollicking novel so much that I read most of it again while writing this review.
Both funny and poignant, this is that rare book that will appeal to all ages and genders! A good book club selection.
WHAT OTHER REVIEWERS SAY
New York Times Book Review: “[A] mischievous, wise and wildly entertaining novel…Towles goes all in on the kind of episodic, exuberant narrative haywire found in myth or Homeric epic…Each [character], Towles implies, is the central protagonist of an ongoing adventure that is both unique and universal.”
WHO WROTE IT
Amor Towles is the author of The New York Times bestsellers Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. The two novels have collectively sold more than four million copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages. Towles lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.