Mary

Mary is the desperate and financially struggling protagonist of the novel. An Ivy League graduate, she has fallen on hard times after a year of mysterious and undiagnosable illness and rising medical debts. She seeks relief from a holistic treatment option called Pneuma Adaptive Kinesthesia, or PAKing. She searches for a second job to pay for this exorbitantly expensive treatment, scouring Craigslist and bulletin boards to find a way to supplement her moderate income from her job at a travel agency. Eventually she discovers a mysterious "income-generating opportunity" and winds up involved with the Girlfriend Experiment, the research project funded by wealthy and influential actor, Kurt Sky. She is to assume the role of his Emotional Girlfriend as he undertakes a project to quantify emotional connections and discover the true meaning of love and affection. The novel delves into Mary's troubled childhood past with religiously overbearing parents as...