'The Lincoln Highway' by Amor Towles

The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of sophisticated, absorbing fiction returns with an elegant, propulsive novel set in 1950s America

In June 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is taken home to Nebraska by the director of the farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased and the family farm mortgaged by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west where they can start their lives again. But when the director leaves, Emmett discovers that two friends from the farm have hidden in the trunk of the director's car. Together, they hatched a completely different plan for Emmett's future.

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles' third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary style, providing them with a variety of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.

MY THOUGHTS:

This is my first book finished this year. I wrapped it up for myself and put it under the Christmas tree, having enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow so much. At first, I assumed that Amor Towles would change its scope from confinement in a building to an expansive journey. The title turns out to be a bit misleading, as this is less an actual travel tale and more about the obstacles and shenanigans that interrupt the characters from possible trips they intend to take. A lot of action takes place in New York City.

It's about three 18-year-old boys who became friends on a youth work farm where they were all serving time. Emmett Watson is on his way home to Nebraska. He was convicted of unintentionally slaughtering men, and while there his father dies, leaving him the sole guardian of his 8-year-old brother, Billy. The bank repossessed the family home, and the brothers now plan to start a new life in Western California. However, it turns out that Emmett's two companions, Duchess and Woolly, have hidden in the director's car, and they intend to head to East New York. Although he sensibly plans to separate from them as soon as possible, the cunning Duchess has her devious ways of ensuring this doesn't happen.

The characterization is excellent. In contrast to Emmett's sincere and grounded determination to be a quiet, hard-working citizen for the sake of his younger brother, his two friends are completely different personalities. Woolly is a kind, lost soul who wanders through life at a slower pace than others, easily overwhelmed by the details of life. However, his observations sometimes delve into depths that the multitasking masses ignore. And the energetic and disarming Duchess is a cunning and manipulative seductress with rigid notions about return and retribution. He's the kind of guy who desperately needs a true friend, but he makes life irreparably complicated for those he approaches. Distancing yourself from him always seems like the wisest choice by far, but he's so charismatic that it's much easier said than done.

The change of perspective allows for many cliffhangers at the end of chapters and sections. I read an interview with Amor Towles, who revealed his original intention to share all the scenes between Emmett and Duchess alone, but several other voices insisted on speaking as well. I'm glad about that, because without Woolly's thoughtful and eccentric observations, it would be a much less quirky book. And sure, the additions of voices like Ulysses and Pastor John make the whole book more contrived and less credible as a whole, but is that such a bad thing? They arguably make it more Dickensian and lyrical. It's the kind of book to suspend disbelief and go with the flow.

I can't help but wonder why Towles chose to use third-person perspective for Emmett and first-person for Duchess. Does he intend for readers to feel more intimately connected to this impossibly smug asshole? I'm guessing a lot of people do and it's easy to understand why. You would have to be very hard of heart not to like him when you find out his backstory. I found myself liking Duchess more with each page I turned, even though her pure cheek often surprised me. However, young men with good hearts and strong principles always attract me, which is why Emmett has never stopped being my favorite of the boys.

He's not necessarily my favorite character. For me, the most incredible character is Sally, Emmett's neighbor. She is a strong-spirited young woman, steadfast in her conviction to use kindness and common sense as compasses, no matter how crazy the world seems to grow. Her father calls her willful, angry, contrary and prone to speaking her mind. He means all of this as a pointed put-down, but she takes it as a compliment. Sally's aggressive presence elevates the quality of every scene she's in, and she's in very few. My favorite chapter in the entire book is a personal reflection in which she defends her feminine domestic arts when she suspects boys tend to discard them. It is precisely Why they are old-fashioned, time-consuming and unnecessary for her to do.

The ending is abrupt and shocking. It ends one part of the plot perfectly with some brutal poetic justice, but I still can't help but ask, "Is this really all we've got?" Some seemingly important loose ends are left in the wind, including the strong purpose behind the Watson brothers' joint decision to choose California as their final destination. Even more frustrating, a certain someone manages to escape the 'unfinished business' that seemed to haunt him throughout the story. I realize I was going out on that date, so it's the harder difficulty that makes me yearn for a break. Should we accept this last page with absolute finality? If there's at least a little room for ambiguity, I'll take it.

Overall, I think the story is about the complications of getting involved with other people's messes, inviting us to consider the extent to which the threads of different people's stories converge and blend into one. It's sprawling, clunky, tangential, and all over the place, but always strangely compelling. Laughter comes often, and I haven't even started on young Billy's endearingly innocent genius. I thought it was a perfect read for that last lazy week of the year that begins with Boxing Day, and I recommend it to anyone interested in reading it.

But while I can forgive the bizarrely far-fetched moments, I can't really forgive and forget the frustration of those loose ends! In fact, I would go so far as to say that Towles disappointed his readers by letting these threads languish when he gained our interest so strongly and seemed to imply that they would be major plot points. It's enough to remove an entire star from what could have been my final rating.

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