Name: Jess Rez's review of The Answers by Catherine Lacey
Item: The Answers
Rating: 3
Author: Jess Rez

Catherine Lacey

Huffington Post's 33 Titles To Add To Your Shelf in 2017 Elle's 25 Most Anticipated Books by Women for 2017 Buzzfeed's 32 Most Exciting Books Coming Out in 2017 Los Angeles Times “Faces to Watch” in 2017 Chicago Reader's Books We Can't Wait To Read In 2017 An urgent, propulsive novel about a woman learning to negotiate her ailment and its various aftereffects via the simulacrum of a perfect romantic relationship In Catherine Lacey’s ambitious second novel we are introduced to Mary, a young woman living in New York City and struggling to cope with a body that has betrayed her. All but paralyzed with pain, Mary seeks relief from a New Agey treatment called Pneuma Adaptive Kinesthesia, PAKing for short. And, remarkably, it works. But PAKing is prohibitively expensive and Mary is dead broke. So she scours Craigslist for fast-cash jobs and finds herself applying for the “Girlfriend Experiment,” the brainchild of an eccentric actor, Kurt Sky, who is determined to find the perfect relationship—even if that means paying different women to fulfill distinctive roles. Mary is hired as the “Emotional Girlfriend”—certainly better than the “Anger Girlfriend” or the “Maternal Girlfriend”—and is pulled into Kurt’s ego-driven and messy attempt at human connection. Told in her signature spiraling prose, The Answers is full of the singular yet universal insights readers have come to expect from Lacey. It is a gorgeous hybrid of the plot- and the idea-driven novel that will leave you reeling.

A Novel

The Answers

Meghan Navoy

Loved the concepts explored — fame, patriarchy, identity, loneliness, sexual assault — but I  could not get into the main character. She’s one of those who sort of floats through her actions. Many times I said “no!” Or “don’t!” To the page, only to be disappointed when she did nothing. 

Jess Rez

The premise sure is interesting, that’s what drove me to start reading the novel. But honestly, the first act was stretched too long for my taste. I found myself being impatient because I thought we’re going to jump right into the Girlfriend Experiment. I wouldn’t say it’s an unpleasant experience but I’d say it could be much better. Some characters passed by too soon, some are too long for their own good. I wanted to explore more about Mary’s background and her friend who introduced her to PAKing, but I didn’t get much of it. However, I have to say it has some pretty strong lines and I was invested by the third act. The Answers is surely ambitious and complex, but it doesn’t really left any strong impression on me.

Sashi

Gary Homewood

Reclusive celebrity runs a psychological experiment with multiple girlfriends playing different partner roles. Lots of ideas and satire on celebrity and relationships, occasionally over-broad. Reads like a feminist reappropriation of early Dellilo. Satisfying ending.

Francine Corry

Karolina Klermon-Williams

Anna

death nurse

Named to Most Anticipated and Must Read lists by Huffington Post, W, Nylon, Elle, Buzzfeed and Chicago Reader Written by one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists, Catherine Lacey's The Answers is a "novel of intellect and amplitude that deepens as it moves forward" (The New York Times) about a woman learning to negotiate her ailment via the simulacrum of a perfect romantic relationship. Mary Parsons is broke. Dead broke, really: between an onslaught of medical bills and a mountain of credit card debt, she has been pushed to the brink. Hounded by bill collectors and still plagued by the painful and bizarre symptoms that doctors couldn’t diagnose, Mary seeks relief from a holistic treatment called Pneuma Adaptive Kinesthesia—PAKing, for short. Miraculously, it works. But PAKing is prohibitively expensive. Like so many young adults trying to make ends meet in New York City, Mary scours Craigslist and bulletin boards for a second job, and eventually lands an interview for a high-paying gig that’s even stranger than her symptoms or the New Agey PAKing. Mary’s new job title is Emotional Girlfriend in the “Girlfriend Experiment”—the brainchild of a wealthy and infamous actor, Kurt Sky, who has hired a team of biotech researchers to solve the problem of how to build and maintain the perfect romantic relationship, casting himself as the experiment’s only constant. Around Kurt, several women orbit as his girlfriends with specific functions. There’s a Maternal Girlfriend who folds his laundry, an Anger Girlfriend who fights with him, a Mundanity Girlfriend who just hangs around his loft, and a whole team of girlfriends to take care of Intimacy. With so little to lose, Mary falls headfirst into Kurt’s messy, ego-driven simulacrum of human connection. Told in Catherine Lacey’s signature spiraling, hypnotic prose, The Answers is both a mesmerizing dive into the depths of one woman’s psyche and a critical look at the conventions and institutions that infiltrate our most personal, private moments. As Mary struggles to understand herself—her body, her city, the trials of her past, the uncertainty of her future—the reader must confront the impossible questions that fuel Catherine Lacey’s work: How do you measure love? Can you truly know someone else? Do we even know ourselves? And listen for Lacey’s uncanny answers.

Meghan Navoy &
The Answers by Catherine Lacey

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Meghan Navoy &The Answers by Catherine Lacey

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Meghan Navoy &
The Answers by Catherine Lacey