What is the author's style in Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner?

The novel is structured in three parts. Flashbacks constitute an integral part of the structure of the novel. The novel begins in 1972 and then flashes back to 1938. The action always ends up at 1972, and that's where the novel ends. The language in Crossing to Safety is at the same time straightforward and lyrical. Larry's voice is insightful and natural, full of metaphors and comparisons, which is in character with his vocation as an English professor and writer. Stegner also packs the novel with allusions, from Dante to the Bible to Faulkner, which is also characteristic of English professors and writers. Stegner includes lengthy descriptions of the beauties of the settings, from the sailboats in Madison to the woods in Vermont.