Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Dry, Yet Beautiful
It seems like everything we read in this book is dry, from the narrator's tone to the descriptions of the landscape. But like the landscape of New Mexico, the tone manages to be dry and incredibly beautiful at the same time.
We get an especially good sense of this tone when we read Cather's descriptions of a peasant's house in New Mexico: "This house was so frail a shelter that one seemed to be sitting in the heart of a world made of dusty earth and moving air" (7.3.28). Dang.
The sentence is short and crisp, but also packed with the same beauty that Cather finds everywhere in the setting of New Mexico. Aspiring creative writers should take note: this is one of the best blends of tone and plot that you'll ever read.