"The Lincoln Highway" by Amor Towles.
The book generated a diverse set of reactions from the group, from “loved it” to “got bored and gave up”.
Whilst the physical road known as the Lincoln Highway is a feature of the book, the story of the book is about the behaviours of and relationships amongst the main characters, Emmett, Billy, Duchess, and Woolly.
They are four very different adolescent characters, and whilst at the outset Emmett and Billy seem to be the “goodies” and Duchess and Woolly the “baddies” those lines become more blurred as the book progresses towards the ending.
The Lincoln Highway was going to take Emmett and Billy in Emmett’s car to San Francisco where they were going to become rich on adding value to dilapidated houses.
Kindle versions of the book hid the fact that this is an enormous tome, it needed a good editor.
The structure of the book was reasonably accessible although there was some repetition and definitely enough “cliff-hanger” chapter endings to make it feel like an adult fairy-story.
Once accepted as a fairy-story the caricature characters generated little empathy.
Basic criticisms of the book were the length, the strange ending, and the dis-functional nature of the characters.
One reader reacted to the hopelessness and inevitability of the outcomes.
“It felt like lying under a damp blanket on a cold foggy February morning”.
There is humour, (e.g. “nothings so big as a man’s ego”, and “nothing gets under your skin like a young know-it-all”), subtly hidden Bob Dylan references, good references to Greek mythology.
The mixed, non-plussed reaction to the book is also reflected in the score, which is significantly lower than Good Reads (4.2)
Doorly score: 3.8
PC. 11 November 2023
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