Critics and general readers alike have praised the clarity and directness of Schaefer's prose style. This undoubtedly reflects Schaefer's experience as an editor and journalist. In keeping with the setting and Ramon's cultural background, Schaefer attempts in this novel to give his English prose a distinctly Spanish flavor, much as Ernest Hemingway did in The Old Man and the Sea.

This approach may occasionally seem awkward and cumbersome, but the overall effect is expressive and lyrical: The boy looked at him, startled, and shrank smaller inside the blanket. His own small hat was down right over his ears and the bandanna was over his face and his eyes peered out from between, large and staring and blinking much. He listened and the wind was a high thin screeching above and the throbbing under this seemed almost to be shaking the very earth and the dimness increased...