The first thing I noticed when reading "Emergency" was how similar the writing style was to "Cathedral." Both used styles of writing that were informal which reflected the characters in the stories. For example, in "Emergency," the narrator is telling the story in a conversational style; when he calls for the eye man he says, "The eye man is on vacation or something." Very informal. "Cathedral" was similar in that the husband narrated the story in a tone that reflected his worldview which was kind of narrow. This casual style isn't my favorite to read, but I do like how it reflects the characters' personalities. The style says so much about the character without having to actually write "So and so is a working class blue collar kind of guy."
Jayne Ann Phillips did something kind of similar in her story, by not using much punctuation, especially in dialogue. While reading dialogue without quotations, to me, it makes the conversation a little more flat and less significant. I think that's also another reflection of the characters point of view; in "Home" it conveys to me that the narrator is kind of done with her mom's BS.
I also liked the informality and the conversational dialogue of those stories. It's a great way to show who the characters really are and give insight to their personalities. I also agree that the way it's written is a little hard to get through. For me, i have to entirely change the way I read the dialogue in order to hear it in the character's voice. I'm no longer hearing my own voice. But it is more entertaining to read than just facts about a character.
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