The Lincoln Highway in Book of The Month

Aug 02, 2022 Tami rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2022

This is a book that's meant to be savored. Great choice for book clubs, as it is full of topics that would make for interesting discussion. 4.5 stars ...more

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Mar 25, 2023 Trisha rated it it was ok

I wish more than anything that I had loved this one. But ooooh I found it a slog to get through. I found chapters upon chapters of unnecessary information. There are many POV but I found Duchess completely unlikable. I disliked all of his chapters of justification and excuses for his poor behavior - he was awful to the only people who were nice to him. He was nicer and kinder to strangers on the street (when he wasn't hurting them!) I liked Emmett and I loved Billy and their storylines, I even l ...more

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Nov 21, 2021 Jeff rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The journey is more important than the destination. The story is supposed to be Emmett and Billy reuniting with their mother at the other end of the Lincoln Highway. It was also supposed to be Duchess getting revenge on his father for sending him away to Salina. Neither of those things happen and I think that’s one of the main takeaways for me. You have goals, plans, objectives but life gets in the way and dealing with life becomes the main arc of your story. It didn’t bother me at all that none The journey is more important than the destination. The story is supposed to be Emmett and Billy reuniting with their mother at the other end of the Lincoln Highway. It was also supposed to be Duchess getting revenge on his father for sending him away to Salina. Neither of those things happen and I think that’s one of the main takeaways for me. You have goals, plans, objectives but life gets in the way and dealing with life becomes the main arc of your story. It didn’t bother me at all that none of the original concepts were finalized.

Balancing the accounts. Emmett and Duchess are both very aware of settling accounts and trying to make everything even. This concept is present in our judicial system as Emmett has fulfilled his obligation to society but not to the family (until the encounter at city hall). Duchess has similar concepts as he visits the old warden and Townsend. The main question at the end was does Emmett’s action (and Billy’s as well) mean they owe Duchess? Or was what they did to Duchess fair to his decisions from earlier? Was it Emmett/Billy that killed Duchess or was it his own greed and impatience?

Parental influence. All of our characters have issues with their parents and yet, seemingly, all of our characters are making the same mistakes that their parents made. Do we grow up as our parents? Will Emmett break out of his father’s shadow? Was Duchess the same shyster as his father?

Wolly’s suicide. A very jarring plot twist that I did not see coming. Would the story have been different had this not happened? Couldn’t Duchess have made similar decisions without the suicide? Maybe not but I was not expecting the dark turn in the novel.

“How easily we forget - we in the business of storytelling - that life was the point all along. A mother who has vanished, a father who has failed, a brother who is determined. A journey from the prairies into the city by means of a boxcar with a vagabond named Ulysses. Thence to a railroad track suspended over the city as surely as Valhalla is suspended in the clouds. And there, the boy, Ulysses, and he, having sat down by a campfire as ancient as the ways of man.”
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