When Len later learns that Ainsley is pregnant, he talks to Marian, who confesses that pregnancy was Ainsley's plan all along. Shortly afterwards, Marian's problems with food begin when she finds herself empathizing with a steak that Peter is eating, imagining it 'knocked on the head as it stood in a queue like someone waiting for a streetcar.' After this, she is unable to eat meat – anything with 'bone or tendon or fiber'.Īinsley's plot to seduce Len succeeds. Marian and Duncan have a surprise meeting in a laundromat, engage in awkward conversation, and kiss. The funny thing was that I really meant it.' I’d never said anything remotely like that to him before.

I’d rather leave the big decisions up to you.' I was astonished at myself. When asked to choose a date for the wedding, Marian slips into unexpected passivity: Unaware of Ainsley's plan to get pregnant by Len, Peter chides, 'Ainsley behaved herself properly, why couldn't you?'Īt the end of the night, Peter proposes to her. Marian runs from the restaurant and is chased down by Peter in his car. I poked it with my finger and smudged it around a little before I realized with horror that it was a tear.' 'After a while I noticed that a large drop of something wet had materialized on the table. Marian finds herself disassociating from her body as Peter recounts a gory rabbit hunt to Len: Marian later has a dinner date with Peter and Len, during which Ainsley shows up dressed as a virginal schoolgirl – the first stage of her plan to trick Len into impregnating her. While walking from house to house asking people their opinions, she meets Duncan, a graduate student in English who intrigues her with his atypical and eccentric answers.

When Marian is horrified, Ainsley replies, 'The thing that ruins families these days is the husbands.' Looking for a man who will have no interest in fatherhood, she sets her sights on Marian's 'womanizer' friend Len, who is infamous for his relationships with young, naive girls.Īt work, Marian is assigned the task of gathering responses for a survey about a new brand of beer. Marian also keeps in touch with Clara, a friend from college, who is now a constantly pregnant housewife.Īinsley announces she wants to have a baby – and intends to do it without getting married. She shares the top-floor apartment of a house in Toronto (never named in the novel) with her roommate Ainsley and dates a dependable and boring boyfriend, Peter.

Marian MacAlpin works in a market research firm, writing survey questions and sampling products.

The edible woman duncan