The Girlfriend Experiment: Catherine Lacey’s The Answers (2017)

In today's episode, Tim Albers, Johanna Manz, and Marcel Hartwig discuss Catherine Lacey's sophomore novel The Answers (2017). The novel introduces us to Mary Parsons whose real name is Junia Stone. She has chronic physical pains and takes up a special holistic treatment that adds tremendously to the already existing financial burden of her life. In order to cope with her rising debts she responds to an ad and is hired as “Emotional Girlfriend” in a Girlfriend Experiment. The purpose of the latter is to decipher the neurobiological mysteries of a successful love relationship. In this experiment, the work of the relationship is split up, every woman hired for a different emotional performance is reduced to a role and love’s work becomes a scripted set of data. Our conversation about The Answers explores the narrative form and the themes of Lacey's book. Together we ponder the merits of the novel’s Girlfriend Experiment. 

music & sounds by: Axl Rhodes, listen to "Netrunner" in full!

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