You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
janine1122 's review for:
The Lincoln Highway
by Amor Towles
Whooo, this book was a journey. Optimistic maternity-leave Janine thought an audiobook would be a great idea as I sat on the couch feeding the baby or washed bottles or just...whatever. So I picked this audiobook, partly because it has "Lincoln" in the title, and partly because Amor Towles is great. And I listened to a little of it back when I started it at the end of October and then I realized despite my best intentions, I would not be engaging in this audiobook from home, but would be revisiting it once my work commute resumed.
That gap certainly made for an interesting reading experience, as did the fact that when I started reading this book NO ONE else was reading it, and since then it feels like everyone has. But, this has been all about me, now to the book itself:
Towles is a brilliant writer, and does a great job of building a story and characters. There's so much nuance to the characters, both their strengths and flaws shining through. And Towles does a great job of SHOWING rather than telling as the story progresses. He never tells us what to feel about the characters, or the story, or whether they are good or bad. The story is presented, characters viewed from multiple angles, and the reader is left to decide how they feel and what they believe about that character. I personally quickly found a soft spot for both Billy and Wooly, characters that were similar in about as many ways as they were different, though both were underestimated by those around them. I think this similarity in the way they were treated by others is what helped them form such a kinship, and see each other so clearly. I just adored them both - Billy was the true hero for me, and Wooly wasn't far behind him.
I think one of the testaments to the strength of this book is how strongly I felt about some of the characters - As much as I loved Billy and Wooly, I despised Duchess about an equal amount, a feeling which grew as the story progressed. Although I will say here Towles also showed his talent, because he did a great job of showing both how infuriating (and delusional?) Duchess could be, while also showing how convincing and successful at garnering sympathy or understanding he could be. The nuance was appreciated, even if it didn't make me like Duchess anymore in the end :)
My biggest gripe?
Audiobook note: Eduardo Ballerino was excellent as usual, BUT I didn't understand why they even bothered with multiple narrators. I was excited at first because Marin Ireland did the narration for Sally, but... the chapters requiring alternate narrators were so minimal, that I felt the narration shift was distracting rather than adding to the telling of the story. I honestly could have done without it. It felt like a strange choice to just not have Ballerini narrate the whole thing.
That gap certainly made for an interesting reading experience, as did the fact that when I started reading this book NO ONE else was reading it, and since then it feels like everyone has. But, this has been all about me, now to the book itself:
Towles is a brilliant writer, and does a great job of building a story and characters. There's so much nuance to the characters, both their strengths and flaws shining through. And Towles does a great job of SHOWING rather than telling as the story progresses. He never tells us what to feel about the characters, or the story, or whether they are good or bad. The story is presented, characters viewed from multiple angles, and the reader is left to decide how they feel and what they believe about that character. I personally quickly found a soft spot for both Billy and Wooly, characters that were similar in about as many ways as they were different, though both were underestimated by those around them. I think this similarity in the way they were treated by others is what helped them form such a kinship, and see each other so clearly. I just adored them both - Billy was the true hero for me, and Wooly wasn't far behind him.
I think one of the testaments to the strength of this book is how strongly I felt about some of the characters - As much as I loved Billy and Wooly, I despised Duchess about an equal amount, a feeling which grew as the story progressed. Although I will say here Towles also showed his talent, because he did a great job of showing both how infuriating (and delusional?) Duchess could be, while also showing how convincing and successful at garnering sympathy or understanding he could be. The nuance was appreciated, even if it didn't make me like Duchess anymore in the end :)
My biggest gripe?
Spoiler
What was the deal with Sally and Odysseus? Emmett and Billy just ride off into the sunset, and leave Sally behind?? We never find out what happens with Odysseus and his wife? WHY ARE THEY THERE IF WE DON'T GET RESOLUTION TO THEIR STORIES. I was so mad at how Emmett treated Sally, who was always there for him and, more importantly, was always there for BILLY, acting as a mother to him when he was alone in the world. It infuriated me especially that they would leave her behind. And, okay, as I'm writing this, I'm remembering at the end when Duchess sees Billy and Emmett with Sally and Sarah (assuming that was real), and maybe they didn't just leave her, but still Emmett treated her terribly and I'm still mad about it.Audiobook note: Eduardo Ballerino was excellent as usual, BUT I didn't understand why they even bothered with multiple narrators. I was excited at first because Marin Ireland did the narration for Sally, but... the chapters requiring alternate narrators were so minimal, that I felt the narration shift was distracting rather than adding to the telling of the story. I honestly could have done without it. It felt like a strange choice to just not have Ballerini narrate the whole thing.