East is East by T. C. Boyle

Great book! It really sucked me in with the contrasts between the characters, the irony of the situations, and the tragic-comic coloring of everything. It tells the story of a Japanese sailor who jumps ship off the shore of Georgia and meets an array of odd characters, some that help him and some that hurt him, as he struggles to make sense of America and find a place for himself. One of the people that "helps" him is an ambitious female writer at an artist colony on a secluded island off the Georgia coast. Boyle draws her with a deft touch, hilarious in places and sadly ironic in others. An excellent novel.