In my moment of sudden destruction, I learned the very hard way that reinforcements would not be coming.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph NA)

Importance: The author tells her reader that when she needed her friends the most, when her husband told her that he wanted a divorce, all of her friends abandoned her. This memoir grows from the author’s need to create a new community for herself when her old one abandoned her.

Did we have a happy marriage? I thought so. My ex-husband says we didn’t. I guess that difference in perspective tells you all you need to know.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph NA)

Importance: The author describes how completely she was caught off guard when her husband asked for a divorce. She believed that they had a happy marriage, but her husband did not.

It was safe to be Duchess. I could be friendly and sociable without running any risk of making friends. I didn’t want to...
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph NA)