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aaronj21 's review for:
The Lincoln Highway
by Amor Towles
The ending of this book threw me for a loop and somewhat soured the entire rest of the novel for me. If you’ve read it you know what I’m talking about. Not only does our main character and moral compass of the story behave very out of character and put his erstwhile friend in a horrible Jigsaw-esque murder trap, leading directly to his death, the whole tone was completely at odds with the previous 98.5% of the book.
Throughout, the whole novel had the flavor of a Wes Anderson movie, nothing utterly unbelievable really happened but everything was so twee and the characters spent so long exchanging snappy, glittering dialogue and there was such an abundance of pithy maxims and purple prose, that you knew this wasn't quite the real world. It veered at times into a watered down sort of fantasy for me.
That this same book should end with a central character, whose perspective we’ve shared, whose backstory we know, and whose intentions, however misguided were almost always benign and usually thoughtful, should die, drowning after his former friend put him in a damaged rowboat without an oar, was a radical departure to say the least.
More confusing still, Emmet, our main protagonist, spent all book working through his guilt over accidentally killing another boy in a fight two years prior. He worked admirably on controlling his anger and has largely mastered it, although he will always feel guilt for the life he took, however unintentionally. For Emmet to make all that progress and then deliberately put Duchess in a damaged boat, knowing full well he can’t swim, strains credulity. That Emmet, who was shown to be practical and thoughtful, and who had hours in which to plan something to keep Duchess at bay, should decide on this course of action means, to me, he either took leave of his senses or else intended serious harm. In either case its a baffling end to the novel.
I know that it appears that the author was saying Duchess’ death is his own doing, really, since he couldn’t control his greed and jostled the leaky rowboat by reaching for the money in its bow as it scattered on the wind. I don’t really buy that. Authorial intent aside, that’s not enough justification for this to seem like anything other than manslaughter at best and murder at worst.
Maybe I’m missing the point. Maybe something the author was trying to say sailed right over my head. But based on my current impressions and understandings, this ending seems like something of a slap in the face and a terrific volte-face that leaves me feeling disoriented, unfulfilled, and not a little annoyed with the writer.
Throughout, the whole novel had the flavor of a Wes Anderson movie, nothing utterly unbelievable really happened but everything was so twee and the characters spent so long exchanging snappy, glittering dialogue and there was such an abundance of pithy maxims and purple prose, that you knew this wasn't quite the real world. It veered at times into a watered down sort of fantasy for me.
That this same book should end with a central character, whose perspective we’ve shared, whose backstory we know, and whose intentions, however misguided were almost always benign and usually thoughtful, should die, drowning after his former friend put him in a damaged rowboat without an oar, was a radical departure to say the least.
More confusing still, Emmet, our main protagonist, spent all book working through his guilt over accidentally killing another boy in a fight two years prior. He worked admirably on controlling his anger and has largely mastered it, although he will always feel guilt for the life he took, however unintentionally. For Emmet to make all that progress and then deliberately put Duchess in a damaged boat, knowing full well he can’t swim, strains credulity. That Emmet, who was shown to be practical and thoughtful, and who had hours in which to plan something to keep Duchess at bay, should decide on this course of action means, to me, he either took leave of his senses or else intended serious harm. In either case its a baffling end to the novel.
I know that it appears that the author was saying Duchess’ death is his own doing, really, since he couldn’t control his greed and jostled the leaky rowboat by reaching for the money in its bow as it scattered on the wind. I don’t really buy that. Authorial intent aside, that’s not enough justification for this to seem like anything other than manslaughter at best and murder at worst.
Maybe I’m missing the point. Maybe something the author was trying to say sailed right over my head. But based on my current impressions and understandings, this ending seems like something of a slap in the face and a terrific volte-face that leaves me feeling disoriented, unfulfilled, and not a little annoyed with the writer.