2024 the best book about lincoln review

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(as of Nov 29, 2024 17:29:08 UTC - Details)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

More than ONE MILLION copies sold

A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year

“Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A classic that we will read for years to come.”—Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club

“Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.”—Bill Gates

“A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.”—NPR

The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York.

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.”–Bill Gates

Reviewer: F. Moyer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Greatly enjoyed this book. Will look for other books by this author.
Review: Goodreads Choice Awards for 2021 gave 5th place to this book in the category “Historical Fiction”. Two thoughts:[1] The books that came out 1st thru 4th must be absolutely marvelous[2] Just because a story takes place in 1954, should that book have to be classified as “historical” fiction? Maybe reserve that category for books such as “Killer Angels”, which fictionalized historic figures during historical times.For those who assume “The Lincoln Highway” is about a road trip on the Lincoln Highway, my feeling is: not really. The planned trip goes awry quickly, and in the opposite direction, too. But that’s okay because this book is focused on characters: especially on three older boys (Emmett, Duchess and Woolly) and Emmett’s 8-year-old brother, Billy. The three older boys met and became friends at youth correctional work farm. They came from diverse family backgrounds and certainly had different ways of thinking and reacting to circumstances. And Billy is, well, Billy: young, intelligent, idealistic and vulnerable.The boys’ plans continue to go awry for a myriad of reasons: the effects of a flawed upbringing, bad decision making, absolutely crazy decision making, others doing bad things, others doing good things, etc. For anyone wanting to read a story that linearly goes from A to Z, you may become absolutely frustrated with the flow of events as things rarely go as expected. And yet, I greatly enjoyed this book. Go figure.Bottom Line: Great characters. Interesting story. Clever, almost poetic, ending.Note: Some reviewers rated this book low because they felt it wasn’t as good as the author’s other books. So I am definitely going to read some of those other books.

Reviewer: Bill LaCourse
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: quirky and a bit choppy but an interesting and satisfying read
Review: I guess I just prefer a more traditional narrative style than the chapters named for the characters, giving that character’s perspective. That said, the characters were endearing; the situations interesting and improbable, yet captivating. Well worth your time.

Reviewer: Rocky Macy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Beautiful Writing, Wonderful Story!
Review: The time was June of 1954, the place was a bankrupt farm in rural Nebraska, and the two central characters in this work of fiction were the Watson brothers, Emmett who was eighteen and his little brother Billy, who was eight. Emmett had been serving a sentence at a boy's reformatory for his part in the unintentional death of a local bully, but when his father died of cancer, a decision was made to release Emmett so that he could return home to care for his little brother.Billy had been staying with neighbors awaiting his brother's return, while the bank had been preparing foreclosure documents on the family property. The neighbors were Sally, a nineteen-year-old friend of the Watson's, and her father. Sally was plainspoken to a fault and somewhat resentful of her lot in life - which seemed to be taking care of her father until some other man for her to take care of would come along, but she cared for Billy with the fierceness of a mother hen watching over her only chick.As the story opened, Emmett, who had been serving his sentence on a work farm in Salina, Kansas, was being driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the reformatory. Emmett had plans to pick up his brother, spend a final day or two in the farmhouse, and then head out to Texas with Billy where he would make his fortune buying, remodeling, and selling houses, all financed by the secret nest-egg of three thousand dollars that their father had managed to hide from his creditors at the bank.But Billy had a different plan. He had found a cache of postcards written by their mother just after she abandoned the family several years before - postcards that their father kept secret from the boys. The postmarks and notes on the cards indicated that after their mother left the family she had traveled along the Lincoln Highway, the nation's first transnational paved thoroughfare, headed for California. (The Lincoln Highway ran from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. The Watson's farm was close to the halfway point on the highway.) Emmett had no interest in reconnecting with their mother, but Billy, who was little more than in infant when she left, did. He eventually managed to convince Emmett that California was growing faster than Texas and would be a better prospect for his home renovation plans.All of their plans, however, were thrown into a cocked hat when Duchess and Woolly, two other young men who were serving time at the facility in Salina with Emmett, turned up at the Watson's farm after having stowed away in the trunk of the warden's car just as the warden and Emmett were preparing to leave Salina and head for Nebraska. Duchess was the son of an itinerate vaudeville actor and spent a lot of time growing up on the road and in and around New York City. Woolly was the son of a socially prominent New York family. Duchess, a charming plotter and manipulator, wanted Emmett - who had his own car - to drive them to New York where Woolly would access a pile of cash ($150,000) which his grandfather had set aside for him in the family safe as a "trust fund." If Emmett would drive them, they would split the trust three ways and Emmett would be set for set up to be a major homebuilder in California.Emmett, who regarded himself as far more sensible than the other two former reformatory inmates, declined, but he eventually agreed to go out of his way and take them to the train station in Omaha where the escapees could board a train for New York City. However, while they were enroute to Omaha, Emmett managed to get distracted by another of Duchess's misadventures long enough for Duchess to "borrow" his car - and Duchess and Woolly headed off to New York leaving the Watson brothers stranded in rural Nebraska.Emmett called Sally who came and transported them to the train station in Omaha where Emmett intended to board a train and head to New York City to get his car back, But after Sally left them at the train station, Emmett realized that his money, the nest-egg of $3,000, was still in the trunk of his car under the spare tire. After some careful research, he found an express freight train that was headed to New York City, and he and Billy secreted themselves in a boxcar.And from there Emmett and Billy Watson began a journey which was marked by personal adventures and encounters with characters very reminiscent those experienced by Huck and Jim as they floated down the Mississippi on their raft in a bygone era.The Lincoln Highway is a character-driven tale that is and pulled along through narratives of each major individual in the story. The manner in which it is presented, through the varying viewpoints, enables readers to gain a fuller perspective of what is actually happening, and it adds to the compelling nature of story. The pages, nearly six hundred of them, turn quickly.While The Lincoln Highway, is a very satisfying reading experience, the plotting is far from predictable and it keeps the reader's attention with unexpected twists and turns, much like any drive along an unfamiliar road. It's a book that is hard to put down, and a story that is difficult to quit. While The Lincoln Highway almost begs a sequel, I hope that does not happen because a furtherance of this tale would only serve to dilute its magnificent impact.This is a wonderful story, Mr. Towles. Your countless accolades are well deserved!

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: My third Amor Towles and what a novel!
Review: Wonderful multi-faceted story told by a masterful storyteller. Never a dull moment throughout, each character complex, engaging and endearing. Plenty of hold-my-breath moments and frustrations felt for the main character who gets taken for a ride! My heart has taken a beating here and I rooted for them all. Like Gentleman In Moscow and Rules Of Civility, thoroughly entertaining. A real page turner. Read in 2 days.

Reviewer: Flamo
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Weird ending. Hanging story lines
Review: Good story. Very creative how the main characters all spoke in the first person and had their own chapters to do so. However, I got the feeling the author got "tired" of the story and hurried to end the book. There were some dangling story lines of the main characters and not in a way you'd say "Oh, there's a sequel to this book".

Reviewer: Haro Strait
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is another wonderful book from the author of A Gentleman in Moscow. Set in the US in the 50s, the story centres around two brothers who go on the road (willingly or not). Like "Gentleman", there are no villains - just characters who don't perceive the implications of their actions on others. The youngest of the characters, Billy, is a treat: wise beyond his years but still innocent. Each main character has their own sense of what's right and what's wrong and acts accordingly. The story is told from the multiple viewpoints of its characters and flows nicely towards the inevitable (and touching) end. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Reviewer: Saimohan pahwa
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: 2nd book of his in a row - gentleman in Moscow and then this one - one better than the other !

Reviewer: Celeste
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The book itself is really good and this book edition in particular is really well done

Reviewer: lucia arias schreiber
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: El mejor libro de Amor Towels. La creación de personajes es fenomenal y la historia, maravillosa.

Reviewer: R C.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A wonderful saga, well written as always. Highly recommended.