"

Through Buddy's picaresque journey, Gayl Jones
shows her mastery of both dialogue and interiority.
There is a bare minimum of scene-setting and little
indication of actions such as standing, sitting or
leaving a room. Instead we find encounter after
encounter with richly individuated characters, each
sporting his or her own verbal idiosyncrasies, as
noted by a well-read travelling man with an acute ear
for speech patterns, just like his creator.