What is the author's style in the short-story collection, Temple Folk?

The language of Temple Folk remains fairly consistent across each of the stories, not deviating much from a particular style that ties the stories together into a coherent whole. While the perspectives differ from story to story, both in terms of whether or not the story is in first- or third-person and depending upon the age, gender, and circumstances of each of the main characters, the style of the writing of the stories retains a certain stylistic consistency. The narration tends to be rather matter-of-fact, focusing on descriptions of the surroundings of each of the characters with occasional dips into their psychologies. They are set firmly within the real world with the exception of maybe "Due North," the final story in the collection, whose main character, Taqwa, sees visions of her father after his death. The story does make clear that her father is not actually manifesting in front of her as a supernatural being; rather, her visions are attributable to her grief and feelings of shame that she has repressed throughout her life to maintain a good relationship with him.

Again, although there are different narrators for each story and the style of the narration differs, the grammar and syntax used remains fairly consistent throughout. A couple of the first-person stories have occasional incursions of slang, but they are not written drastically differently or in a heavily affected dialect or accent. Occasionally, some of the characters within the stories will speak in ways that add personality and dialect to the writing. Some of the characters speak in African-American Vernacular English. For instance, Calvin's father in "New Mexico" at one point chastises his FBI agent son by praising the work that certain people working for the Nation of Islam are doing by telling him that they are "not working for the white man like you doing" (38). Some characters speak more overtly in AAVE than others, adding flavor to their personalities by giving them each unique speaking styles from each other without making it incredibly obvious or affected.