View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What rubber doll did Dudley Knott carry with him everywhere?

2. How old was the author when he met his new best friend, Dudley Knott?

3. In what year did the author's sick daughter finally graduate college?

4. "He who does not love remains in death" is quoted by the author from what book of the Bible?

5. What place of torment eventually becomes home if you live there long enough, according to the author?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who goes to Bermuda with the author when he is a child and how does he describe their arrival in Bermuda?

2. What does the author tell us about his first two autobiographies?

3. What dream did the author have about a hotel?

4. How did the author's kids connect him with the outside world when they were small?

5. What differences did the author write about among Union students as well as what they all shared?

6. What can you tell about the author and his time at Union Theological Seminary?

7. When do Dudley Knott and the author become friends?

8. How do our other selves develop as explained in Part Two of "Telling Secrets?"

9. How did the author feel about his kids once they were older and how did this affect his life once they left home as adults?

10. What does the author describe about the Tower of London?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

After the author's mother-in-law dies, he and his wife spend time in Florida, where he begins seeing another therapist. How does this therapy help him forgive and understand his father? His mother? What did the author dream about that helped this process? What did the author realize he had passed on to his kids after going through this process?

Essay Topic 2

Why does the author attend St. Barnabas Episcopal Church? How is this place more at home for him than another Church? Why does the author enjoy the chanting so much? Who is Robert MacFarlane, and how does he impact the author's connection with this church?

Essay Topic 3

On page 10 of the book, the author writes that "don't talk, don't trust, don't feel" is supposed to be the unwritten law of dysfunctional families. How does this "law" manifest itself in the author's life as a child when his father commits suicide, as well as in the immediate events following his father's death (e.g. the lack of a funeral, the family move out of the country, the mother's behavior, ...); and how does the "law manifest itself in later events involving the author and his brother's relationship with their mother as she aged?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 761 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample