There have been some beautiful phrases here, the dialect and tone so well suited to each particular character:
I’ve drunk good whiskey and I’ve drunk bad, the old man told Fleming. I’ve drunk whiskey so good you could smell the leaves in the woods where it was made and I’ve drunk it so bad you could strip the paint off a barn door with it. (E.F. Bloodworth/pg. 174)
I’m lookin for a feller named Rutgers, he told her.
He ain’t down the front of my dress, she said. She slapped his tea onto the red Formica table and walked away. (Coble/pg. 199)
True, the southern drawl is present in all the characters of this novel set in Tennessee, but the diction is well put forth so that each character does have a way of putting things that distinguishes him from the others.
In Jamestown, one of the best (and vital to the novel to be well done) elements was the way Matthew Sharpe told the story from multiple characters’ points of view, often depending upon this factor to stress the perception differences of a single incident.
I feel that William Gay shows extreme skill in bringing out character through their conversation.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology