Dry, Descriptive, Historical, Technical, Restrained, Emotionally Minimalist
Okay, so this novel won't exactly take you on an action-packed thrill ride, nor will it have your sides splitting with witty banter. Many of the passages, in fact, contain detailed descriptions of the setting or technical explanations of Tom's work. Just take a look at one of the many passages explaining construction on the barn:
The beams to connect the bents were next to put in place. Men raised them until their tenons entered the mortises in the posts. A rope from the end of each was passed over the tie beam and two men on the ground took hold of the end, keeping the beam horizontal to meet the next bent when it was raised. (47.1)
Bents? Tenons? Mortises? Ummm…
Unless you have a solid construction background, you might not know (or care) what words like that have to do with anything. (In case you happen to be curious, here's a visual.) The text drops these kinds of words like it's no big deal, demonstrating a fluency in working-life vocab that's pretty foreign to most of us.
There are also several passages that don't necessarily advance the plot or include especially exciting action, but give a historical sense of what life was like in that time and place. For example, when Ackerman & Hook Mill gets a telephone:
"You mean to tell me that we would have a mess of people hooked in on our line? Listening in to what I say? Or you say, for that matter, George?"
"No, that's when you have a party line. You don't have to call the operator to get someone else on your line. With us it would be better maybe, to have our own line."
"Then how do you get ahold of someone else?" Erlo demanded.
"You turn the crank one ring," George explained.
"That gets the operator on your line. She says, 'Number please.' You give her the number of the person you want to call." (15.8-11)
Operators and cranks sound pretty far-out in a world where smartphones rule the world. But hey, they had to start somewhere. This passage shows what learning about a telephone for the first time might have been like. Other scenes like the inquest into Mrs. Breen's death and Tom's experience at the bank serve the same purpose: providing glimpses into upstate New York life in the early 1900s.
Amid all the nitty-gritty farming, construction, and historical detail, there are moments that express emotion, but even those passages are often presented in a straightforward way, often with a restraint characteristic of Edmonds' dry writing style. For example, when Tom gets the dream-crushing news that the Breen place has been sold, we're told he felt "bitter about it" (32.17), and then:
The rest of the day at the mill didn't mean anything. Afterwards he couldn't remember who had come in or what anybody had said, and when it came time to start home he found he hadn't eaten his lunch. He tossed the sandwiches into the river when he was crossing Fisk Bridge so Polly Ann wouldn't know […] (32.19).
Poor Tommy Boy. We don't get long broody passages or outbursts of passion, but a thrown-away sandwich is about as tragic as it gets in this world.