One of the things I thought about when writing "Rainmaker" was how rarely Americans appreciate they are living in a global culture, not an American one, and that American culture, however influential it might be, is parochial, limited by our inability and unwillingness to learn other languages or about other cultures.
Americans still imagine "foreigners" as poor, uneducated "dirt farmers" who have to be "saved" and shown the light of Christianity or Western consumerism or in most cases both.
For example, Senegal, where the novel is set, is a majority Muslim nation but they have nightclubs, bars, cell phones, pop music, markets, etc.
Why wouldn't they?
But Americans are frequently baffled by other countries being "modern," e.g., Iran paying attention to the same Internet meme culture we do, European states having superior healthcare systems, or China being more technologically advanced in many respects.
We imagine ourselves as special and superior when we're not.
Even the countries Americans do consider modern are never treated as peers or equals.
Japan, for example, is often reduced to a quirky pastiche, whatever people pick up from watching English dubbed anime or playing video games.
Even among people who consider themselves cosmopolitan, the American perspective and its impulse toward isolationism and paternalism gets in the way of understanding.
Nowhere Girl
grepe