Smith, Alexander McCall. The Right Attitude To Rain. (A double feature!)

She did not enjoy cocktail parties, unless she was in the very special mood that made them bearable or unless she was the hostess, in which case she could busy herself with duties and would never get stuck. Getting stuck was the problem, thought Isabel. You could not talk to the same people for the whole evening, but how did one get away? Saying "I must let you circulate" was the same as saying "Will you please move on", and saying "I must circulate" was the equivalent of saying "I must move on; you stay here."

Isabel felt a momentary irritation with him over this question. It was something one should not ask another, because it was either mundane to the point of pointlessness, or tactless. If somebody did not like living where they lived, then that meant that they were trapped...