The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles

After serving his sentence for manslaughter, a young man returns home to find his father has died and the family farm has been repossessed.  Deciding to head west to California to start a new life with his younger brother, instead he’s forced to head to New York when a couple of friends from his time away “borrow” his car to settle some scores of their own.

The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental highway in the United States, running coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco.  The local portion runs less than a mile north of my house, so when I became aware of Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway, I figured it would be worth a read.  Given the name of the book and the fascination of one of the characters, very little time is actually spent travelling the Lincoln Highway.  I don’t know if I’ll dip my toe back into the Towles pool, but I did enjoy this incursion.