From the Bookshelf of Retro Chapter Chicks …

The Lincoln Highway

Amor Towles

Start date: January 1, 2022

Finish date: January 31, 2022

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Chapter Chick Reading

Nov-Dec 2025: My Name Is Emilia del Valle
By Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴… , Founding Retro Chick · 1 post · 9 views

last updated Oct 29, 2025 02:06PM

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What Members Thought

Feb 22, 2022 Candi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: new-york, historical-fiction, chunksters, adventurers-explorers

“… for most people, it doesn’t matter where they live. When they get up in the morning, they’re not looking to change the world… And if it doesn’t matter for most people where they live, it certainly doesn’t matter where they’re going. That’s what gave the Lincoln Highway its charm.”

Let me start by saying that I absolutely adored both Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. They remain two of my very favorite books, with copies of both holding special places on my bookshelf designated for s ...more

207 likes · Like · see review

Jan 13, 2022 Maureen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nyt-best-books-21-centuty

I felt this was a hard book to review.

I really wanted to love this book after reading his two previous novels.
My anticipation of an interesting road trip on the Lincoln Highway was disappointing. I kept reading waiting for this trip to commence. There were so many disruptions and different characters, whose storylines just dropped.
Mostly I didn’t like the ending.

Towels writing was superb. I loved all his bits of wisdom and mythology.
I loved Billy the most, he just tugged at my heart. I felt tro ...more

58 likes · Like · see review

Jun 09, 2022 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: concierge, library, book-club, audio, literary-fiction, strong-women, coming-of-age, historical-fiction, retelling

Book on CD performed by Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, and Dion Graham.

This is a quest and a road trip, a saga of family and friendship, an exploration of morals and principles against temptations which are seemingly impossible to resist.

Emmett Watson is an 18-year-old who’s been released from his term at a youth correctional institution. But his father has died and during his long illness he’d lost the family farm. So now Emmett and his younger brother Billy decide to set out for Californi Book on CD performed by Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, and Dion Graham.

This is a quest and a road trip, a saga of family and friendship, an exploration of morals and principles against temptations which are seemingly impossible to resist.

Emmett Watson is an 18-year-old who’s been released from his term at a youth correctional institution. But his father has died and during his long illness he’d lost the family farm. So now Emmett and his younger brother Billy decide to set out for California and a new start in life. But their plan gets derailed when two friends from the juvenile center show up and suggest that they first go to New York, where they can collect a large inheritance. The result is an odyssey worthy of Homer, but rather than ten years, THIS odyssey takes only ten days.

Towles structures the book with alternating points of view, so we hear from Emmett, Billy, Duchess, Woolly, Sally and Ulysses (and a few other minor characters) in sequence. Frequently the same scenario is related by different characters, switching points of view at a critical juncture and sometimes going back in time to explain how we got to this point.

I loved these characters, though I was wary of Duchess from the outset. What a snake oil salesman! But I have to admit he’s a charming bandit. I couldn’t figure out why Emmett didn’t just say “No,” but of course, he had to think of eight-year-old Billy who was beguiled by Duchess and Woolly and excited by the possibility of starting the Lincoln Highway from its beginning in NYC. And Billy, with his beloved Professor Abacus Abernathe’s Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travels has the naïve trust of a child, but wisdom far beyond his years. He’s a keen observer and an astute judge of character.

Towles ends the book with a bit of a puzzle. Leaving the reader to imagine what will happen next, and hungry for more details of future adventures. I’m not sure I liked the ending; I’m left with a huge question about (view spoiler). But it’s a fable, after all, and I guess I just have to take it on faith.

Edoardo Bellarini does the lion’s share of the narration on the audiobook, with Marin Ireland taking on the role of Sally and Dion Graham bringing Ulysses to life. It’s a marvelous, 5-star performance by all three! ...more

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Sep 11, 2022 Theresa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, classics-and-classic-redos, buddy-reads, dragons-spotted-in-the-wild, highly-recommended-by-me, historical-fiction, coming-of-age, z-2022-top-10

We are taken on an roadtrip in June 1954 with 18 year old Emmett, recently released from a juvenile detention work camp after serving a term for manslaughter, and his 8 year old brother Billy as they leave their midwestern home and sad past behind to start over in California. The plan is to take the Lincoln Highway, the first intercontinental highway that starts in NYC, all the way to San Franscisco, the same route taken by their mother when she abandonned the family ten years earlier. Billy of ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2022 Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Schu rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

This is the third work that I've read by Towles and I did enjoy, however I did not love it.
In this story, the reader will find rich character development and beautiful writing. The plot involves 4 major characters that plan a journey across country to start a new life. However, events take a slightly different turn when one character, Duchess, decides he has unfinished business on the east coast. This leads to a bit of a chase, where Emmett and Billy (two brothers and I love Billy), try to get t ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 07, 2022 Celia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2022-kindle-counted, historical-fiction-read, kindle-list, audible, 2021-pub, 2022-read, ten-year-challenge, 52-2022, 2021-ny-times-best, sharon

The time frame is the 1950's. Five friends are involved. This book evokes memories of The Odyssey or Huckleberry Finn. The Journey Story. It encompasses 10 days, but there is so much action, it seems like longer.

Emmett Watson - sent home to Nebraska from a work farm in Kansas. His father has died, his mother is gone and his 8 year old brother needs his care.
Billy Watson- the brother. Precocious, smart and aware.
Duchess and Wooly - stowaways from same work farm
Sally - Nebraska neighbor whose fami ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2022 Tasha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

Another wonderful story by the author. Great character driven story.

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 15, 2022 ˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ rated it really liked it

Shelves: in-person-book-club

The story is about 18-year-old Emmett (just out of juvenile detention) and Billy, his 8-year-old brother, who, after their dad dies, embark on a journey together. Emmett is a fine carpenter and wants to go to Texas but Billy wants to go to California to try and find their mother, who left the family a while back. The story is written over a 10-day period beginning with the day Emmett is released from detention.

It’s set in the 1950’s and I enjoyed reading about the Studebaker they drove and the H ...more

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Jan 17, 2022 Kristin rated it really liked it

Shelves: rcc_2022, late-modern-1850topresent

Nebraska to New York -- United States-- (June 12-21,1954)

“If you take a trait that by all appearances is a merit—a trait that is praised by pastors and poets, a trait that we have come to admire in our friends and hope to foster in our children—and you give it to some poor soul in abundance, it will almost certainly prove an obstacle to their happiness. Just as someone can be too smart for their own good, there are those who are too patient for their own good, or too hardworking.”

First of all, t ...more

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