What is the author's style in A Cure for Dreams: A Novel by Kaye Gibbons?

The language of A Cure for Dreams is one of the most delightful aspects of the novel. Betty is a colorful storyteller and her use of the common expressions of the day provide vivid insights into the way people think and interact. Some of her expressions are quaintly amusing, some are unforgettable and some are confusing to us today.

The fictional narrative consists of stories (vignettes) told by Betty and written by her daughter, Marjorie. With the exception of the introduction and postscript, the narrative is linear and chronological. In fact it is nearly seamless. There are no instances of flashback in the novel because by virtue of being a fictional memoir or oral history, the entire book is a flashback. The timeline covers about two and a half decades, roughly 1917 to the mid 1940s, with the majority of the action taking place during the Great Depression of the 1930s.