I need an example of a metaphor used in the book, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, by Anne Tyler.

The novel by Anne Tyler, entitled Dinner at the
Homesick Restaurant, is written in three
sections.

The novel is about the life of Pearl Tull (and
her impending death), and the family she has "created" with her children. Part I is
written from Pearl's perspective, with memories strung together, attaching themselves to
other memories—one after the other.

Part II gives her
children (Cody, Jenny, and Ezra) the opportunity to tell the story from their own
perspectives.

Part III is the account of Pearl's death from
Cody Tull's perspective. (He is Pearl's oldest son.)

Look
to the following quote for a metaphor. (The part about the piano scales is simply
wonderful imagery.) Metaphors can be general in nature, when any two dissimilar things
with similar characteristics are compared, and like or
as are NOT used. Besides being
metaphors, some forms of imagery may have other "labels" as
well.

This is a diary entry that Ezra reads to his
mother.

"The
Bedloe girls' piano scales were floating out her window," he read, "and a bottle fly was
buzzing in the grass, and I saw that I was kneeling on such a beautiful green little
planet..." (from Part
II).

The metaphor comes from
the phrase, "kneeling on such a beautiful green little planet," where the
patch of grass she is kneeling on is compared to a
beautiful green planet. (It infers that the grass she kneels on is like a
green plant, but the word, "like" is NOT used.)