What is the author's style in In the Middle of the Fields by Mary Lavin?

Lavin conveys a pervasive silence in the story, which sometimes suppresses intense emotions. Her depiction of the characters' silent surface with feelings roiling immediately below it suggests the possibility of an impending explosion. Dialogue between the characters is kept at a minimum, especially when it veers too closely to the unhealed grief and anxiety about present problems. When, for example, Crossen speaks about his first wife, whose memory still haunts and influences him, he provides only a few understated details: "I courted a girl down there when I was a lad." He hints, though, at the devastation he experienced after her death when he admits that his second wife, helped "knit" him back into "a living man," but he is unable to express his deep love for Bridie. The main character never gives voice to her "vague, nameless fears" that could destroy her efforts at establishing a strong sense of self. These suppressed emotions come out unexpectedly when Crossen asks the main character for a kiss, and later when she "hysterically" insists that Bridie was "the one did it!"