The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles

 

Main Characters
Emmett Watson	Billy Watson – 8 yrs.	Duchess Hewett	Woolly	Sally	Ulysses - hobo
Accidentally killed Jimmy Snyder – sent to Salina   Father - deceased Mother – ran away to California?	Professor Abacus Abernathe’s Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers – read 24 times   Stickler for rules	Abandoned at orphanage by father, Harry Hewett   Framed by father and Fitzy and sent to Salina	Sarah and “Dennis” Whitney– sister and brother-in-law, in charge of Woolly’s money   Kaitlin - sister   Trust fund in safe in upstate New York	Sent Emmett food and gifts to Salina   Father bought Watson farm	Macie – wife Son   Saved Billy from Pastor John

 

Other Characters

Sister Agnes – orphanage   Townhouse – Duchess got him in trouble at Salina and he got double the punishment Maurice - cousin   Pastor John – attacked Billy twice, tried to steal silver dollars   Stew – hobo, hit Pastor John and saved Ulysses and Billy   Abacus Abernathe – author, followed Ulysses

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Pages are from hardback edition of novel.

1.       Why do all of the main characters have at least two double letters in their names?  Do you think this is significant?

2.       Woolly’s brother-in-law is always referred to as “Dennis.”  Why did the author put his name in quotes?  What did that signal to you, the reader?

3.       Did you understand why Emmett felt guilty about Jimmy’s death?  Jimmy provoked him and his death was an accident.

4.       Sally continued to make her own preserves long after she could have bought them at the grocery store.  She explained that she did it because “it’s time-consuming…it’s old-fashioned…it’s unnecessary” (pages 103-104).  She thought this was all related to kindness, “the performance of an act that is both beneficial to another and unrequired” (page 104).  Is this a good definition of kindness?  What acts of kindness did you see in the novel?

5.       Did you understand Ulysses’ shame about not enlisting, even though his job was “essential?”  Why couldn’t Macie understand this and why did she leave him when he enlisted?

6.       Abacus told Ulysses his life was an echo of the Great Ulysses and he was sure he would be reunited with Macie and his son after ten years.  He also told him he needed an act of tribute like the Great Ulysses and that he should carry a railroad spike “to the place where someone is so unfamiliar with the railways that they ask you what it is, and on that spot, you should hammer it into the ground” (page 425).  What was the point of that?

7.       Sister Agnes preached that, considering the wrongs done to us and the wrongs that we do, “the only way to get a good night’s sleep is to balance the accounts” (page 92).  How is this an important to the flow of the novel?

8.       Following Sister Agnes’s thoughts, Duchess did not feel guilty about hitting Cowboy (page 94), hitting retired Warden Acklerlys with a skillet (page 236), finding Fitzy (page 273), and then he let Townhouse hit him (page 305).  Did you understand Duchess’ motivation?  Do you think the actions made him feel better about himself?

9.       How does breaking into the orphanage, locking the nun’s in their rooms, and giving the boys jars of Sally’s jam and spoons fit into the philosophy of balancing accounts?  In the same vein, do you think Duchess should then feel guilty about stealing Emmett’s car?

10.   What did you think about the ending and the fates of Woolly and Duchess?  Do you think Emmett expected what happened to Duchess?

11.   Do you have memories of stopping at Howard Johnson’s on trips and their placemats?

12.   What scenes do you think you will remember?  I think I will remember Emmett’s shame and Sarah’s graciousness about the wine-stained napkins and Emmett taking her medicine bottle from Woolly’s bedside so she does not know her medicine contributed to his death.  Also, Billy’s refusal to hide during the school safety and how Sally came to his defense and he was then named the monitor as well as Sally’s declaration that she was going with them to California not to keep their house, but to on her own where “all the cooking and cleaning that I’ll be doing is for me” (page 528).

13.   Why did the author blacken out the end of Ulysses’ and Pastor John’s stories on pages 332 and 337?

14.   Billy told Ulysses he was not named after Ulysses S. Grant, but after the Great Ulysses who was cursed to wander the seas.  When Billy was reading to Ulysses, he asked Billy to read the story about the Great Ulysses for the second time.  The author wrote that the second time, Ulysses “didn’t hear it the same way” (page 324).  Have you had the experience of reading something for the second time and having a different reading experience?

15.   If you read this book twice, did you understand it or appreciate it differently the second time compared to the first?