View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. As the author's mother aged, she complained about her looks, saying her hair looked like what?
(a) Straw.
(b) Cotton.
(c) Wool.
(d) Flax.

2. In describing what he learned after his father's death, what does the author consider a means of grace?
(a) Patience.
(b) Change.
(c) Tragedy.
(d) Faith.

3. According to the author, what does God give us that helps us finish with the past and remove the power of the past to hurt us?
(a) Love.
(b) Strength.
(c) Faith.
(d) Memory.

4. How many failed marriages did the author's mother have after his father died?
(a) 4.
(b) 1.
(c) 2.
(d) 3.

5. How many years had the author been married by the mid 1970's?
(a) 25 years.
(b) 5 years.
(c) 20 years.
(d) 10 years.

6. After his father's suicide, where did the author's mom move the family?
(a) Bermuda.
(b) Miami.
(c) Halifax.
(d) Cape Hatteras.

7. What is the title of the book the author wrote to tell the story of his father to a child?
(a) The Wizard's Tide.
(b) Ansel Gibbs.
(c) The Last Battle.
(d) Now and Then.

8. What did the author's mother use when she "struck to kill?"
(a) Chair.
(b) Cane.
(c) Tongue.
(d) Book.

9. How old was the author when his mother made him feel like a traitor for writing the fictionalized "Ansel Gibbs" about his father's death?
(a) 40.
(b) 52.
(c) 32.
(d) 35.

10. To the author's mother, being beautiful was her ______.
(a) Triumph.
(b) Flaw.
(c) Business.
(d) Weakness.

11. In the Introduction, who does the author quote regarding the definition for "story" versus "plot?"
(a) E.M. Forster.
(b) C.S. Lewis.
(c) Himself.
(d) R. Kipling

12. Losing track of our "____," according to the author, means being impoverished humanly and spiritually.
(a) Feelings.
(b) Memories.
(c) Faith.
(d) Stories.

13. What was the make of the family car used for the 1936 suicide?
(a) Chrysler.
(b) Hudson.
(c) Ford.
(d) Chevrolet.

14. Who made no new friends while living in New York for almost twenty years?
(a) Mrs. Frederick Buechner.
(b) Mrs. Buechner.
(c) The author.
(d) The author's father.

15. What title did the author write when he was in his fifties and his mom was in her eighties?
(a) Now and Then.
(b) Telling Secrets.
(c) The Return of Ansel Gibbs.
(d) The Sacred Journey.

Short Answer Questions

1. What place did the author see as an act of God in his life that he paralleled to the entry into the Promised Land?

2. On what street was the apartment in which the author's mother died?

3. How many years after his father's suicide did the author write "The Return of Ansel Gibbs?"

4. In what month during1936 did the author's father commit suicide?

5. Who refers to themselves as the "last rose of summer?"

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 406 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample