The Lincoln Highway

I didn't know much about Amor Towles' The Lincoln Highway other than it was written by the author of A Gentleman in Moscow. And that it was supposedly nothing like A Gentleman in Moscow. 

Biggest difference for me was that unlike the years it took for me to finish reading A Gentleman in Moscow, I whipped through The Lincoln Highway in just a few days. 

The Lincoln Highway is the very engaging tale of Emmett and his younger brother, Billy. Emmett has just been released from a stint at a reform school after his actions accidentally caused the death of another young man. He was released early because of the death of his father. Years earlier, Emmett and Billy's mom had left. The father, not fit for the farming life, had let the farm go into foreclosure before his death. The boys literally had nothing and were ready to make a fresh start. Somewhere else. Emmett dreams of a life flipping houses in Texas. And Billy dreams of finding their mother.

Billy found a stash of postcards from their mother. From those clues, he figures that their mom had set west on The Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway in the United States. He wants to follow The Lincoln Highway and search for her at the fireworks in San Francisco on the 4th of July. She always loved fireworks. Emmett gives in, figuring California has just the growth potential for his house flipping idea to make sense.

Who arrives on the scene but two of Emmett's friends from the reform school. Who have totally different ideas about what the immediate journey should look like. This is the journey the four end up taking. And The Lincoln Highway is the tale of that journey. Taking place over 10 days, it is told from multiple perspectives. From the perspective of each of the four young men, from the perspective of Sally, Emmett and Billy's closest neighbor in Nebraska. And from the perspective of a few others that they meet along the way.

I really enjoyed this novel but I wish I hadn't read it so close to finishing This Tender Land. The stories are nothing alike. But This Tender Land  was also the story of four young people on a journey. The strength of both of these novels is in the storytelling. I couldn't help but comparing the two when in reality there is no comparison.

 

This Tender Land

William Kent Krueger is a master storyteller. I learned that when I picked up Ordinary Grace last spring. This Tender Land reinforced that in my mind. What a masterful story.

This Tender Land tells the story of four vagabond children: Odie, his older brother, Albert, Native American Moses and little Emmy. The three boys were all residents at the Lincoln Indian Training School in Minnesota. Odie and Albert are the only non-Indian students at the school, taken in by the school after the murder of their father. Their mother had died several years earlier. Moses (which wasn't his real name) came to the school after the murder of his mother at which time his tongue was cut out. Emmy's mother was one of the teachers at the school. Her father had died and she lived with her mother, an exceptionally kind women.

The children at the school were mistreated. I know that the purpose of "Indian schools" was to "civilize" the Indians. But this school sounded more like a prison than a school. Emmy's mother, Mrs. Frost, had suggested that she take in Odie, Albert and Moses so they could leave the school. Then the "tornado god" took something else away from Odie when Mrs. Frost gets killed. Emmy goes to live at the school, with the school's superintendent whom is referred to as "The Black Witch." Odie, Albert, and Moses "kidnap" Emmy and thus starts the adventures of the four vagabonds. 

I feel like my synopsis of the book does it a disservice. This book is wonderful. There have been some comparisons to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In a way it reminded me of "The Wizard of Oz" as the four children follow the river to search for what they are missing and to search for home. They meet mean-spirited people making them question why they left the Lincoln School. But they also meet people who only want to help and to restore their faith in humanity and in God. This is all set with the background of the Depression, where most everyone is suffering from hard times.

My New Jersey book club had selected this for their February title. Since they're still meeting on Zoom, I'll get to join in to the discussion. I'm really looking forward to that.

This Tender Land is the first audio book that I've listened to while walking. A few weeks ago, I became determined to find a headset that would be comfortable while walking. I needed something that wouldn't be uncomfortable or pop out of my ears or block out the noise of what might be around me. I bought a pair of Shokz OpenMove headphones. They are perfect! Until recently, I thought I could only enjoy audio books while driving in the car by myself. These headphones allow me to "read" while I'm walking (which also encourages me to walk more). I'm also able to "read" while doing simple housekeeping tasks, something I wasn't able to do when I was trying to listen through my phone's speaker. Now... off to find my next audiobook read.

Orphan Number 8

I finished Orphan Number Eight by Kim van Alkemade late last night and I still can't decide how I really feel about it. It's a story about a girl named Rachel whose mother is dead and her father has run away.  She and her brother, Sam, are sent to a Jewish orphanage in NYC. 

It creates a good picture of life in these enormous orphanages in the early part of the 1900s. Actually, perhaps it does not. Perhaps it only reflects what life was like in one specific orphanage in New York City, an orphanage supported by a  generous charity.

Because of their ages, Rachel and Sam are separated when they first arrive at the orphanage. Rachel is sent to an infant nursery where she is selected to become a subject in a radiation medical study. That's the point when Rachel becomes "orphan number eight."

The story is told along two different timelines. One is Rachel's story as a child, first at home and then at the orphanage and as an older child. The other storyline is Rachel as a 40-something nurse working in Manhattan, living in Coney Island. (I must say that I did love all the descriptions of Coney Island and of the subway rides heading to Coney Island.)

As pieces of history, this novel was fascinating. van Alkemade did excellent research in preparation for writing this historical fiction novel. As for the story, there was something that didn't sit well with me. I'm not quite sure what it was. If goodreads gave half stars, I would have given this one 3.5 stars. Since half stars are not available, I rounded down.

At my last Jewish book club meeting, initially this was the book selected for our next meeting. Shortly after the meeting, several of the members decided that they'd already read the book and as much as they'd love to discuss it, they wanted to read something new. (We're going to be reading Button Man by Andrew Gross instead.) I'm really hoping that one or more of the members of the club is willing to discuss Orphan Number Eight with me. I feel like this is a book that begs to be discussed and that it would make an excellent book club read.
 

Blue is my favorite color

Sometimes I need time to really think about a book before I write any sort of review about it. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler wasn't really that type of book, but I was away from my computer when I finished it. I only hope I can remember enough to write something worthy here. (I also pray that I can remember enough about the book to be able to discuss it at a book club meeting a few months from now!)

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed A Spool of Blue Thread. I think it's a good book club book because there are a lot of things that can be discussed. But there was very little action in the book and it wasn't overly character-driven either. It's a family story about a quite ordinary family from Baltimore going back as far as Red's parents and going forward to Red's kids. (The grandchildren are minor characters in the story so it would really be a stretch to say that the plot covered 4 generations.)

Red and Abby Whitshank are a perfectly ordinary couple, parents of 4 children, living in a house that Red's father, Junior, built for wealthy clients but which Junior aspired to live in. He got his wish. The house is as much a character in the book as any of the children - or even Red, Abby, Junior or Linnie Mae.

(Another text-to-self connection here... my family is currently getting ready to sell a house that has been in our family for over 80 years... longer than the Whitshanks lived in their house. Tyler gives you an excellent idea of what the house means to Red. Did my family home mean that much to anyone who had ever lived there? I suppose I will never know.)

The Whitshank kids, Amanda, Jeannie, Denny and Stem, are worried about Abby and Red living in that big old house alone. Abby experiences blackouts and Red has trouble hearing. The kids decide that the parents need help. But the parents don't think they need help nor do they want any help. This allows Tyler to unfold the stories of the Whitshank family. How they got to where they are today, what drives the children, what explains the relationships between the siblings. It's all quite ordinary but it's not. On the surface, the story is simple... and probably more common than I know in the community in which I am now living. It also brought back memories of what I experienced at the point where I worried that my parents probably should not have been living on their own.

Tyler weaves the story back and forth through different periods of time. We start in 1994, jump forward to more current times, then back to learn the story of Red's parents in the 1930s. And then we're mostly back to the present. These movements through time make the story evolve in an unpredictable way. But isn't that the way real life is? The spool of thread that is the Whitshank family slowly unravels and we learn that all is not as it first appears.

I love family sagas. I love reading about ordinary (but not so ordinary) families. And I love Anne Tyler's style of writing. (My favorite book of hers is most likely Back When We Were Grownups.) A Spool of Blue Thread is the type of book that really demands to be read in one sitting. But because my reading time was broken up, it surprisingly took me over 2 weeks to finish.

And like I said, I hope I remember enough of what drew me in during my reading when it comes time to discuss this with my community book club.

P.S. Here's the link to my recap of the book club meeting where A Spool of Blue Thread was discussed.