Who is Karen from Mao II and what is their importance?

Karen first appears in the Prologue, as a willing, happy participant in a mass wedding ceremony led by cult leader Sun Myung Moon (see below). She reappears in the main body of the narrative as Scott's partner, in both life and in devotion to Bill Gray. That devotion, it seems, is as defining for her as her former devotion to the Reverend Moon. In other words Karen is a follower, easily and willingly led by stronger personalities - or, in the case of the troubled community of homeless with which she becomes involved in the middle of the novel, a stronger sense of need.