Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Lincoln Highway

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

19 reviews

amyvl93's review against another edition

adventurous reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Amor Towles' two previous novels are favourites of mine, I loved their characters and settings and so a new full length novel was hotly awaited. However, unfortunately The Lincoln Highway didn't really do it for me.

The novel follows Emmett, who has been released from youth prison following a freak accident, and returns to his farm home following the death of his father. He plans to travel with his brother to a new life in California but this plan is derailed when his fellow inmates Duchess and Woolly have escaped with him and have their owns plans to head to New York.

Now whilst this may not have hit the heights for me of his previous works, Towles writing is excellent as ever. There's something about his prose that can really sweep you up into a story, and the sense of place was excellent - both the rural small town settings and the streets of New York. This is an American road trip novel, which is a tradition I'm not steeped in, so I'm aware that I may have missed some references to novels and films, as there were definitely times where I found the zany cast of characters that the characters came across got a little wearing.

My biggest challenge with this novel was the fundamentally unlikeable character of Duchess. I think the text wanted us to find sympathy for him; and I definitely recognised the pain of his upbringing but other than that I found him a horrendously selfish character and I struggled to spend time with his perspective. Whilst all the characters, except maybe Billy - Emmett's brother, were complex flawed characters, but Duchess had my back right up as I could never quite understand his motivations for any of his choices.

It's a shame this didn't live up to my expectations, but I still look forward to what Towles writes next.

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reeses_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

while this book was genius and impossible to put down, i did find certain characters extremely irritating and the book got frustrating to read at times because of their actions. however it was still a great read.

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cheryllovesbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book! It is so cleverly constructed that it kept me guessing until the end. The last 60 pages are darker and it has an ending that has some people searching for answers but I thought that it was entirely fitting. I will be reading more by Amor Towles.

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jhbandcats's review

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adventurous dark funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’m one of the few people who didn’t like A Gentleman in Moscow so I wasn’t expecting to like this one either. Boy, was I surprised. This book is wonderful: charming, poignant, adventurous, and, above all, entertaining.

The story is told from multiple points of view, each in a distinctive voice. The writing is beautiful, lush in its descriptions, knowing in the ways of damaged people. It’s a story of four boys on a journey but the Lincoln Highway itself is a sidebar to the varied experiences, both good and bad, that befall the characters.

I loved seeing the world through Billy’s eyes. At eight, he’s innocent and guileless, expecting the world to be the same. The older boys, each around 18, have good reason to be jaded and angry but overall they’re hopeful. Emmett is especially resourceful in dealing with the many obstacles in his path. His love for Billy guides his every move.

I can’t recommend this highly enough.

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