The Lincoln Highway in On The Same Page

Jan 06, 2022 Lorna rated it it was amazing

The Lincoln Highway was the latest book by Amor Towles and what a swashbuckling adventurous tale it was, taking place over a ten-day period. In June 1954, Emmett Watson returned to Nebraska having been released from a juvenile work farm in Salina after serving fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. Over the course of the next ten days, we come to know Emmett and his precocious eight-year old brother, Billy. Their goal is to drive to California to try to locate their mother who one day left The Lincoln Highway was the latest book by Amor Towles and what a swashbuckling adventurous tale it was, taking place over a ten-day period. In June 1954, Emmett Watson returned to Nebraska having been released from a juvenile work farm in Salina after serving fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. Over the course of the next ten days, we come to know Emmett and his precocious eight-year old brother, Billy. Their goal is to drive to California to try to locate their mother who one day left without a word. But after the death of their father, Billy found an envelope with postcards from their mother addressed to her sons from different points along the Lincoln Highway, including Ogallala, Cheyenne, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Salt Lake City, Ely, Reno, Sacramento and the last postcard featuring a large, classical building rising above a fountain in a park in San Francisco.

"This is the Lincoln Highway, explained Billy, pointing to the long black line. It was invented in 1912 and was named for Abraham Lincoln and was the first road to stretch from one end of America to the other. . . It starts in Times Square in New York City and it ends three thousand three hundred and ninety miles away in Lincoln Park in San Francisco."

We also come to meet Duchess and Woolly, two other eighteen-year olds who were at Salina, each with their own wishes and dreams for the future. Duchess tended to want to foster a sense of camaraderie during that time in Salina as evidenced in what he told the boys:

"No chance was taken here today, my friends. The chance was given. Each one of us has come from disparate parts to serve our disparate sentences for the commission of disparate crimes. But faced with a shared tribulation, we are given an opportunity--a rare opportunity--to be men of one accord. Let us not shirk what Fortune has laid at our feet. Let us take it up like a banner and march into the breach, such that many years from now, when we look back, we will be able to say that though we were condemned to days of drudgery, we faced them undaunted and shoulder to shoulder. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."

A delightful thread running throughout the book is the red leather-bound book that young Billy Watson treasures and reads the stories and myths by Professor Abernathe, his favorite being the story of Ulysses. And one of my favorite passages:

"A little boy from Nebraska appears at his doorstep with a gentle demeanor and a fantastical tale. A tale not from a leather-bound tome, mind you. Not from an epic poem written in an unspoken language. Not from an archive or athenaeum. But from life itself."

I know that there have mixed responses to this book. I loved everything about The Lincoln Highway and found that there was a lot of humanity and grace that sprang from the pages that I tend to associate with the writing of Amor Towles. There was a thread throughout this book of children in some form of peril, some coping effectively, and sadly, others not. But at its heart, this was an epic adventure story not to be missed. ...more

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Jan 13, 2023 Diana S rated it liked it

Shelves: adventure, historical-fiction, coming-of-age, january-2023-tbr-list, read-in-2023, 3500-2023

It was good from the beginning to the middle. I planned on giving it 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. I enjoyed it alot! ❤️ Emmett & Billy! Then the second - half became torturous and drag a little too much. And the ending left me saying Why...... Why..... Why. ... 😢
I'm giving it 3.5 ⭐⭐⭐ ...more

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