The Answers, Catherine Lacey
The Answers, Catherine Lacey
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The Answers

Author: Catherine Lacey

Narrator: Megan Tusing

Unabridged: 9 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/06/2017

Synopsis

In Catherine Lacey’s ambitious second novel we are introduced to Mary, a young woman living in New York City struggling with a body that has betrayed her. All but paralyzed with pain, Mary seeks relief from a New Age-y treatment called Pneuma Adaptive Kinesthesia, PAKing for short. And, remarkably, it works. But PAKing is expensive and Mary is broke. So she scours Craigslist for fast-cash jobs and finds the “Girlfriend Experiment,” the brainchild of an eccentric and narcissistic actor determined to find the perfect relationship—even if it means paying women to fill different roles. Mary is hired as the “emotional girlfriend”—certainly better than the “anger girlfriend” or the “maternal girlfriend”—and is pulled into an ego-driven and messy attempt at human connection.Told in Lacey’s signature spiraling prose, The Answers is full of singular yet universal insights. It is a gorgeous hybrid of the plot- and idea-driven novel that will leave you reeling.

About Catherine Lacey

Catherine Lacey is the author of the novels Nobody Is Ever Missing, The Answers, and Pew and the short story collection Certain American States. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, and a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship. She has been a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, The Believer, and elsewhere

About Megan Tusing

Megan Tusing is an actress, known for The Beginning and the End, The Share, and Odd Jobs. She has a bachelor’s degree in theater from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jessica on June 27, 2017

Wow, I loved this book. I knew from the opening page that I would. Sometimes you find writers who seem to get you or speak to you on a level that just makes sense, and that's how I feel about Catherine Lacey. The Answers is my ideal kind of novel: quirky, witty, intellectually stimulating and deeply......more

Goodreads review by Blair on June 18, 2017

30-year-old Mary is broke and sick. Though nobody has been able to diagnose her illness, she is weak, underweight, and beset by constant, chronic pain. She's recently discovered a method that, miraculously, seems to help, makes her feel almost normal again – an esoteric form of treatment called Pneu......more

Goodreads review by Vanessa on April 13, 2019

A much more intense read then expected, my own senses were heightened throughout, keeping me deep in contemplation and it definitely got my brain ticking. What this book reiterates is that the human condition is deeply complex. Love in particular something so hard to dissect, interestingly within the......more

Goodreads review by Lauren on February 01, 2018

Basically, if you took Jennifer Egan's Look at Me, gave it a handful of Valium, infused it with a dumbed-down version of Super Sad True Love Story, and inexplicably crossed it over with an entirely unrelated memoir about being raised entirely separate from society and then a second entirely unrelate......more

Quotes

“A sparkling satire of our era of big data.” Wall Street Journal

“ A darkly funny, tartly feminist look at the tender state of our bodies and souls in the Information Age…[and] the absurdity of a culture that persists in thinking that enlightenment is a matter of the right purchase, hashtag, or Google search.” Vogue

“Funny and eerie and idea-dense—a flavor combination that turns out to be addictive.” New York Times

“The best narrators disappear as you listen. The voice blends so smoothly with the story as the actor skillfully creates characters, manages emotions, and paces drama that the listeners no longer notice they are being red to. Megan Tusing accomplished just this in Catherine Lacey’s second novel The Answers.” Chicago Tribune (audio review)

“A surprisingly compelling puzzle of a plot involving the Girlfriend Experiment and the way it manipulates its subjects.” Los Angeles Times

"[A] rumination on what we miss and miss out on when our connections to other human beings are synthetic.” New Republic

“Lacey writes loneliness and solitude with a profound depth.” AVClub.com

“Lacey’s eerily brilliant second novel serves as both a disquieting, high-concept cautionary tale and a dark satire about fame, love, abuse, and alienation. If that doesn’t speak to 2017, we don’t know what does.” Literary Hub

“Digs into the choppy turf beneath a woman’s relationship to her body, her identity, and her search for balance between independence and meaningful relationships…Lacey doesn’t give us answers, but she sure gives us a wild story with a memorable protagonist.” Shelf Awareness

“A remarkable novel…Lacey displays an exceptional ability to articulate the elusiveness of knowing others, as well as the desire to find meaning and trust within.” Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review)

Awards

  • Elle Magazine Pick
  • BuzzFeed Books Pick
  • Chicago Review of Books Pick
  • Esquire Magazine Best Book of the Year
  • Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books
  • NPR Best Book
  • Literary Hub Pick
  • Huffington Post Best Book
  • New York Times Critics’ Top Books
  • New York Times Pick
  • Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize
  • New York Public Library Staff Pick
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