The novel’s standout character, however, is charming ne’er-do-well Duchess, whose rough upbringing at the hands of a fraudulent father, an actor and a grifter, has gifted him with street knowledge and a self-made code of honor. Review: Jonathan Franzen makes the ordinary literary in superb domestic epic 'Crossroads'Ī series of adventures and misadventures ensue, with Emmett playing straight man and Billy his innocent but know-it-all sidekick, whose well-loved copy of "Professor Abacus Abernathe’s Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers" provides a mythic counterpoint to their journey to find America’s famed “Lincoln Highway.” When two stowaways, Duchess and Woolly – former inmates and friends of Emmett’s – escape the work camp and propose to join them, the four must navigate their competing desires (redemption and revenge among them), as well as a single vehicle and a dwindling cash supply. The two boys, having lost their father’s Nebraska farm, set out to find the mother who abandoned them for California. Recently released from juvenile detention on a work camp, Emmett Watson is 18, newly parentless and guardian to his bookish, uniquely knowing 8-year-old brother Billy.
This compressed time frame, as well as the multiple points of view of several characters, given in alternating chapters, create a propulsive narrative and a beguiling story about how the past shapes the future.
Watch Video: Cynthia Erivo’s moment: new album, new children’s bookĬombining familiar elements of the picaresque, a road trip, a getaway car and the hero’s journey, Amor Towles’ absorbing new novel, "The Lincoln Highway" (Viking, 592 pp., ★★★½ out of four), is a melange that manages to feel new.Īuthor of the phenomenally bestselling and beloved "A Gentleman in Moscow," Towles sets his newest over the course of 10 days in June 1954.
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