Traudee, I think it would be safe to say that retirement is an "acclimatization to a new and different culture," don't you?
Are you familiar with Baltimore, the inner harbor, North Charles Street? The Beltway? AT fans have made Baltimore THE PLACE to visit...I read this interview written back in 2003 so it won't give away anything of her new novel...
What has this all got to do with Baltimore?Well, Baltimore, Maryland, is where Anne Tyler lives and where 11 of her novels are set. It's a city of 2.5 million souls (650,000 within city limits) 40 miles north-east of Washington DC.
You mean if I go to Baltimore, I'll find Anne Tyler characters in the flesh?In the opinion of some, Baltimore is a living Anne Tyler novel: full of peculiar citizens and strange, inbred traditions. The city is an amalgam of north and south, owing partly to Maryland's historic role as a slave-owning state that stayed in the Union. Anne Tyler herself is a hybrid of north and south. Born in Minneapolis in 1941, she grew up in North Carolina. As a writer, her sense of place, character and language are southern, but she observes from the point of view of an outsider.
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/americas/in-search-of--anne-tyler-in-baltimore-602287.html