Marmon's Writing Style

Within the section “Tucson” we follow Sterling and Seese, two hired hands (one a gardener the other a nurse) on a ranch on the outskirts of Tucson. I find the dynamics of the two characters—Seese, a young blonde woman, and Sterling, an old Native American—interesting. They have nothing in common but their employment and yet they find themselves drawn to each other through depression and loneliness. They do not connect with their employers, two old women, Ferro and his hired man, Paulie, who keeps a cruel eye over them but is kind to the many guard dogs under his watch. It is a nice relationship that blooms between them—a careful, guarded friendship, or perhaps even less than a friendship, but an understanding.
I also enjoyed some lines from the section: “Nothing happens by accident here,” “She has been dyeing everything she wears dark brown. No reason.” Also: “But Sterling knows he’s one of those old-fashioned people who has trouble forgetting the past no matter how bad remembering might be for chronic depression,” “the old woman was hanging off the stool by her high heels,” “Indians were Washington’s problems,” “Sterling felt all his strength drain away through his feet,” etc.
Through these odd relationships: two old twin sisters, the Mexican nephew with a “cruel face” and his hired white companion Paulie, an ex-con, as well as the young nurse and older ranch-hand, Leslie Marmon explores the “everyday”—along with deceptively simplistic lines that reveal more than it seems. I enjoyed her writing style and a recreation of a day in a life, with flashbacks to the past.

Jennie Ziegler