It’s the number of years since Emmett and Billy’s mother left, and the number of postcards she sent on her way to San Francisco. The symbol for infinity turned vertical (8) is the age of Billy Watson. The number eight has multiple appearances in The Lincoln Highway. Which makes for a good novel, but a disappointing story.
Ultimately, adventure-as penned by Towles-is unending, random, and forsaken. The great adventure novels end with resolution The Lincoln Highway ends with tragedy, and the beginning of yet another adventure. Billy begins to write his own story and the implication is that we can do the same.īut even as readers will be spellbound, they will be left longing. And while this high-stakes, spellbinding, coming-of-age adventure comes to a rapid conclusion, you realize by the end that Towles is inviting you to something more. That book spanned 32 years in one location, focusing on one main character this book spans the eastern half of the United States, focusing on four main characters, in only 10 days. The novel ends on June 21, 1954-the precise date that A Gentleman in Moscow ended.
The Lincoln Highway is a true adventure novel, as the four boys traverse the country, coming upon one surprising obstacle after the next, and meeting a full cast of Mark Twainish characters like Pastor John, the derelict preacher who accosts young Billy in a freight car, and Ulysses, the physically imposing, African American, World War II–veteran who has been separated from his family and hopes to be reunited with them after 10 years. Instead of driving west to San Francisco, they would drive to the Adirondacks to unearth a buried treasure: a $150,000 trust left to Wooly. Duchess and Wooly sidetracked the road trip-the first of many such distractions. Little did they know, two of Emmett’s friends from Salina had snuck in the trunk of the warden who drove Emmett home. Towles points readers to the grand adventure we were all created for.Įmmett intends to go to Texas, but Billy reveals a discovery he made in Emmett’s absence: after leaving Nebraska, their mother had sent eight postcards from eight different spots on the Lincoln Highway-the U.S.’s first cross-country highway. Their mother had left Nebraska for California after Billy was born, and due to their father’s death and the circumstances surrounding Emmett’s stint in Salina, the brothers agree it’s time to pack up and start a new life elsewhere. It’s June 12, 1954, and he’s just been released early because his father passed away and he needs to care for his 8-year-old brother, Billy. The story begins as Emmett Watson, an 18-year-old from a small town in Nebraska, returns from a juvenile work camp.
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