The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

 Emmett Watson returns home from Juvenile Detention to find that his father has died and their farm is lost to creditors.  All Emmett wants to do is take his 8-year old brother, Billy, away from Nebraska and make a new start in Texas. Billy has other ideas.  He wants to take the Lincoln Highway to California and search for their mother who abandonded the family when Billy was a baby. Before they can firm up their plans, two of Emmett's friends from the detention center, Dutchess and Wooly, show up on his doorstep.  They claim to have a treasure  just waiting for them in New York, that they are willing to share with Emmett, and all they need is for Emmett to drive them there.  Emmett refuses, but before he knows it they have stollen his car and he has no option but to go after them.  Thus starts an adventure for each of the boys. Emmett wants his car back, Billy wants an escapade like the ones in his adventure book, Dutchess wants to even the score with people in his past, and Wooly just wants to see his sister again. Their adventure leads them along the highways and railways of 1954 America, meeting all kinds of characters along the way. 

 This is my third book by Towles, and I liked this one very much. The writing is wonderful and it as much a fun adventure as it is a philosophical walk through the 1850's. Towels really is one of the great literary authors of our age, and this book won a boatload of awards. The characters are masterful and the book is put together brilliantly. Each chapter is written from the point of view of a different character, and aren't necessarily in chronological order. Each of the main characters are complex with fully developed backstories and personalities. I think the publisher expected the book to be a smash success, because they invested in three different voice actors to narrate the book and they all do a wonderful job. This is another great choice for a book club. (2021, 592p)

Personal note:  When I was a little girl there weren't any DVD players of video games for kids to play in the back seat of a car.  One thing I used to do on a long road trip was look at the cars passing or driving next to us and imagine my spirit jumping into the car with those people and going home with them for a while to see what they were like and how they lived. That is kind of what this book is like.  The reader gets to jump into the lives of almost every character, live inside them for just a short tim, and see how they think and how they live.