Although there are many thematic similarities between the two books, Le Marriage isn't really a sequel. These are new characters, though there are a couple of characters that stray in from the other book. I can see why writers like Anthony Powell begin to use recurring characters. And since I'm still in Paris, I probably will do at least one more novel set in France. Here, we're all Americans.
Nothing stands out particularly in our behavior.
And you realize that not only are you always going to be an American they're always going to consider you an American. You can never ever really be assimilated. I think that's absolutely true. Yes, I read a lot of American books, but I was also very influenced by the tradition of the English novel, especially the 19th century English novel, because those were the first novels that I read as a child. One thing I love about authors like, say, Anthony Trollope or Charles Dickens is that their novels are often as much about the social structures in which the characters interact as they are about the characters.