Book review: ‘The Lincoln Highway’ by Amore Towles

By LARRY BALLWAHN | Wilton

Emmett Watson has been in Salina Reform School for involuntary manslaughter. He had hit a boy who fell on the corner of a cement block and died. While Emmett had done his 18 months, his father had died, leaving an 8-year-old brother and a debt-ridden farm. Their mother had run off to California years ago.

While incarcerated, Emmett had planned to take his brother and go to Texas. He had worked off the farm and thus had gained carpentry skills. His plan was to go to a fast-growing state and refinish a fixer-upper house for resale. Billy had other ideas. He wanted to go to California and find their mother. After all, in Morgan, Neb., they were nearly on the Lincoln Highway, the direct route to California.

There was a time-lag between Emmett’s father’s death and Emmett’s release. Billy had stayed with neighbors: Sally Ranson and her father. Sally was about Emmett’s age, and it was Sally who brought Billy home. She also had readied the house for Emmett’s return. She wasn’t the only uninvited person to visit the farm, though. There had been the banker explaining the bankruptcy and, amazingly, Duchess and Woolly, friends from Salina. They had skipped out by hiding in the warden’s trunk when he brought Emmett home.

The appearance of Duchess and Woolly presented more problems than the bankruptcy of the farm. Emmett planned to leave with his brother, but they were going to California, and Duchess and Woolly needed to get to New York. It was finally agreed that Billy and Emmett would drop them off at the train station. That may have worked if Emmett had always stayed in the car, but when he was off on an errand, Woolly and Duchess were off to New York in the “borrowed” Studebaker. What made it worse, what money Emmett had was hidden in the car. With no money, the plan of taking the train to New York to retrieve the car was thwarted.

They still needed to get to New York, so hopping a freight train seemed the only logical way. Some investigation by Emmett established that it could be done, so later they jumped into an empty boxcar. Emmett left Billy in the empty boxcar and went off in search of food. Billy took an army surplus flashlight from his backpack. And out came his big red book: “Professor Abacus Abernathe’s Compendium of Heroes Adventurers and Other Intrepid Travelers.”

Unfortunately, Billy was not alone for long. Soon Pastor John was peering in from the dark, coveting the flashlight and whatever might be in the backpack. He was particularly interested in food, at least until he learned that Billy seemed cooperative and had a collection of valuable silver dollars. He might have successfully strong armed the boy had Ulysses not arrived on the scene. Instead, with a little help, Pastor John left the moving train via the boxcar door.

Ulysses was a large black man, and to Billy a hero, not unlike those in Professor Abernathe’s book. Even more so when Billy learned his name. Not only had he saved Billy’s things, but he was interested in Billy’s reading of the stories, particularly the story of the “Great” Ulysses. That was what Emmett found when he returned, Billy reading to Ulysses.

When they reached New York City, Ulysses led them to a camp and arranged for food. He agreed to watch over Billy while Emmett searched for Woolly and Duchess and most importantly his Studebaker. He believed he could find Duchess by finding his father, and he knew where he could likely find his address. He also had to look up Townsend, another acquaintance from Salina.

There is much to this book. Sally reappears, Emmett does find his car, but his money is gone, Billy meets Professor Abernathe, and the Studebaker gets painted yellow. It hasn’t been mentioned yet, but the Lincoln Highway actually started in Times Square.

 “The Lincoln Highway” didn’t end the way I thought it would. It probably won’t for you either.

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