In terms of theme and prose style, Bell acknowledges the direct influence of Walker Percy, whose novels also portray vividly drawn modern individuals adrift in an essentially absurd world. Like Percy, Bell presents a "slice of life" which captures a brief period in the lives of his characters without presenting their entire histories or conclusively establishing their futures.

Bell's emphasis upon the grotesque elements of modern society also seems to reflect the influence of Flannery O'Connor, although his characters rarely display the self-awareness achieved by hers; in fact, Bell's characters frequently seem to resemble the bizarre characters found in the fiction of Erskine Caldwell, although Caldwell's comic tone is largely absent.

Certainly the use of multiple narrators can be traced back to the example of William Faulkner, as can the poetic quality of Bell's prose. Again, however, Bell does not directly imitate his predecessor — creating...