Summary

Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the protagonist, Fraz Penzig, an under-employed, middle-class married man. He lives in New York City, and his wife is named Tovah Gold. Fraz is discontented with modern life, and he is a follower of a self-help guru named Hark Morner. Fraz, Kate Rumpler, and Teal Baker-Cassini are Hark’s primary assistants. Hark preaches ideas about ‘mental archery,’ his system that supposedly helps people focus and manage their lives. In Chapter 2, Fraz and Hark travel to Pickering, New York, which is a suburb of New York City. Hark has been invited to speak about mental archery at a public event. In Pickering, a local woman named Meg Kenny acts as Hark's guide. The attendees are mostly low-energy senior citizens, but the attendees seem to be generally interested in Hark’s ideas about focus and discipline in modern life. Fraz thinks...