The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
The title may sound deep and boring, you may find yourself being skeptical in grabbing this book at first sight and plan to read it, the number of pages may intimidate you and the personality who recommended this book may either overwhelm or underwhelm you.
But, this book is one of the books that made me realize again, the cliché “don’t judge the book by its cover”.
I’m not just telling you what I just wrote because those are possibilities. I said what I said because that is exactly what the book did to me. But boy oh boy, did the experience of reading this Amor Towles work did not an inch disappoint me but brought me so much joy.
Lincoln Highway refers to America’s first cross-country roadway for automobiles from New York City to San Francisco. When two brothers, Emmett and Billy, intend to start fresh after the release of the older one from a juvenile prison in the hopes of finding their mother travelling from Nebraska to New York via the Lincoln Highway, but so much so all that happens next is what made the story palpable in my opinion, one named Duchess whom other may consider antagonist but he has the right to be one of the protagonist as well, blending the two together, given his intentions his actions both positive and negative is what led the fate of the two brothers in the ten days in 1954, riding a Studebaker which ended up being repainted to a yellow — yellow of a hornet as stated later on.
“In your life you shall do wrong unto others and others shall do wrong unto you and these opposing wrongs will become your chains. The wrongs you have done unto others will be bound to you in the form of guilt, and the wrongs that others have done unto you in the form of indignation.
The teachings of Jesus Christ our Savior are there to free you from both. To free you from guilt through atonement and from your indignation through forgiveness.
Only once you freed yourself from both of these chains may you begin to live your life with love in your heart and serenity in your step.”
Unexpected learnings and engagement I had while reading — I felt like I was in the road with the characters, I made my way through their journey — for whom each have their rich background entails in every moment.
Beside to Emmet and Billy, I dig on Sally their kind neighbor who look after Billy while Emmet is in detention — but mind you she is more than that and oh I just wish I had someone to talk to and discuss the abundance of one character from the other and their story that perfectly unfolded in every flipped of the page. The multiple point of views along some of the key points of the novel and the writing style that will remind you of every single extremity of the stories development.
“For kindness begins where necessity end.”
I’m so glad that I love reading and that I read this book because it’ll be one for the books, surely! The body of knowledge and wisdom I got from this just made me want to read more.
There is so much to this book both deep in social issues and and hasty humor — packed with its amazing characters each brought takeaways from the novel.
“…just maybe the will to stay put stems not from a man’s virtues but from his vices. After all, aren’t gluttony, sloth and greed all about staying put? Don’t they amount to sitting deep in a chair where you can eat more, idle more and want more? In a way, pride and envy are about staying put too. For just as pride is founded on what your neighbor has built across the street. A man’s home maybe his castle, but the moat, it seems to me, is just as good at keeping people in as it is at keeping people out.”
“Emmet could tell that Sally was as ashamed as he was, and there was comfort in that too. Not the comfort of knowing that someone else was feeling a similar sting of rebuke. Rather, the comfort of knowing one’s sense of right and wrong was shared by another, and thus was somehow more true.
