comment on language /style

As many of the stories are told from the point of view of first-person narrators with distinct voices and include reported speech, the language used in The Secret Life of Church Ladies varies significantly based on who is speaking or narrating. Some narrators are more straightforward and plain with their language, such as Olivia in “Peach Cobbler” (38), who uses precise and clear phrasing as she tells a story covering years of her childhood and adolescence. Others are more energetic and casual, such as Jael in “Jael” (113), who says of the pastor’s wife, Sadie, “I bet she used to wear coochie-cutter shorts before she met Old Reverend. She might be fooling the church people, but she ain’t fooling me”