The focus on responsibility and enduring truths makes The Lincoln Highway a timely tonic in our sad era of loony alternate realities and shameless self-interest. although The Lincoln Highway may grip some readers less deeply than A Gentleman in Moscow, the variety of voicings proves convincing as the final pages turn rapidly. Towles embraces the obscure mysteries that blend light and darkness in human nature. The complexity of Towles’ characters adds pace and interest. It asks big questions about justice and retribution, the primal wounds of desertion by parents and spouses, the seminal role of storytellers, and probes the dimensions of our responsibility to others. Although set in 1950s America, the novel is essentially timeless. But Towles sidesteps that with skilful handling: his mythical allusions and epic parallels create a depth and sweep at odds with the story’s premise. In less confident hands, yet another hard-luck road story from America’s endless web of tarmac might quickly run into cliché territory. Sometimes the past turns out to be less inspiration and more fateful reckoning.
doesn’t shy from sadder realities and that is welcome, as much as we love these young heroes. The other is a more problematic sub-plot that leans heavily on the 'Magical Negro' trope, a term coined by director Spike Lee to describe a Black character whose function is primarily to help white protagonists out of trouble. Still, a reader may find the cuteness meter occasionally ticking too high.
The first is the narrative’s occasional veer toward twee, a tonal choice likely intended to counterbalance darker strains in the story. Two flaws mar this mostly successful novel. His chapters, told in first person, are a marvel of singular voice, a mix of high-flown ironical declamations and truths-told-slant that cause readers to deeply care for this wayward, often dangerous, young man. 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. 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.
Combining familiar elements of the picaresque, a road trip, a getaway car and the hero’s journey, Amor Towles’ absorbing new novel, The Lincoln Highway, is a melange that manages to feel new.
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