What is the author's style in My Life by Lyn Hejinian?

The language in this work tends to be casual and informal. The poems are presented through a stream-of-consciousness format in which there is no chronological adherence. Phrases are frequently repeated, and the most commonly repeated phrases tend to first appear as the title of a previous poem. The writing style can hinder reader comprehension as these poems are not written in a clearly coherent fashion. It is often difficult to determine how one thought leads into the next.

Because there is such a little amount of dialogue, the language is not useful in distinguishing between characters; however, it does provide an interesting view of the author's mind. A large amount of time passes in these poems, but this is not immediately evident as thoughts, childhood events and adulthood events are all interspersed in a non-chronological way. Although the language itself is easy to understand, the style of writing in this book can make it very confusing to read. Regardless, the ideas Hejinian presents are fascinating and usually very apt statements about life in general.