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Something interesting that the author seems to do in this book is instead of painting us a picture of the places Matt encounters, we learn about them as he sees them.

Chris Fabry could have introduced Dogwood something like this: “Dogwood stretched out ahead of us like the fold of a blanket thrown lazily across an untidy bed. Stores hap-hazardously dotted the sides of a main strip…” Readers can be given a clear description of a location, cementing it in our minds as we await the arrival of main characters. This tactic has the advantage of giving us something like an establishing shot; it contains the important details and gives us an idea of the intended feel the author tries to convey.

In this situation we encounter Dogwood at the same speed Matt does. Seeing each individual house as he sees them, traveling through town as he does, and meeting people as he meets them. This creates a different feel as we get emotional feedback from Matt as he processes these new experiences. One of the downsides, unfortunately, is that we can sometimes not have a clear “map” of a location if each stopping point isn’t clearly ties together. As @taylorclogston said, this seems to be the case here. It’s a little difficult for me to envision how exactly Dogwood is laid out and what the proportions are. I imagine if I were to have grown up in a similar place, like @corky, it may be easier for me to relate.

One thing that this story does quite consistently so far is drive home the sense of having distance between people. Whether it’s the economic distance between Jesse and Matt, physical distance between so many as @daeus-lamb mentioned, or even the time distance between Earl and Matt when he returns, we are given a real feeling of how these characters are impacted. We learn to appreciate the people we have in our lives now as they might not be there forever.