The opening of Claire McMillan‘s novel The Gilded Age, published this week:

The Orchestra

“I am a native Clevelander. I went east to school, as we do. And I married the loveliest man from Charleston, South Caroline, and convinced him to move back to Cleveland and start a family with me, as Clevelanders do. Nothing is more usual than Clevelanders of a certain ilk leaving, seeing the world, and then dragging a spouse back to settle down. My husband, Jim, calls himself in jest an import–used to vary the breeding stock.

And variety is needed here….”