What is the author's style in The Tie That Binds: A Novel by Kent Haruf?

The story is written in a fairly straight forward style, though some readers may have trouble with some specific aspects of the writing. For example, Sandy tends to tell some things that aren't necessarily relevant. In one case, Sandy is telling of the situation that leads to the accident in which his unborn son is killed. Before getting to that story, Sandy tells the story of two men, Buster and Barry, who are driving along the same stretch of road and have a similar accident.