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

Short Answer Questions

1. How are the two men resembling the photograph of Stillman distinguishable?

2. According to Stillman's book, what was the biblical Adam's only task in the Garden of Eden?

3. Why does Quinn decide not to continue following the second Stillman and to instead turn around and follow the first?

4. What does Auster plan to do with Virginia Stillman's check?

5. According to the information in Chapter 4, who was the Scottish sailor considered to be the model for Robinson Crusoe?

Short Essay Questions

1. What interests Auster about the authorship of Don Quixote? According to Auster, what was the experiment that Don Quixote was conducting?

2. What is the message spelled out by the letters of the maps in Chapter 8? What does this message reveal to Quinn about Stillman?

3. What is Stillman's project as he explains it to Quinn in Chapter 9? Why is this work necessary?

4. According to Peter, what was his father's motivation for locking him up in the dark for so many years? Was he successful?

5. In Chapter 12, why does Quinn finally decide to leave the alleyway? Who is the first person he contacts and what information does this person provide?

6. After losing track of Stillman, who does Quinn seek out for advice on the Stillman case? Why does he think this person will be able to help him?

7. What is the first thing that Quinn writes in the red notebook? Why is this significant?

8. What is the financial and societal status of the Stillman family? Where do the Stillmans come from?

9. Why did Stillman invent the persona of Henry Dark? What significance does this name have?

10. What is unusual about the relationship between Peter Stillman and his wife Virginia? What does Virginia do to make their relationship work?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout The New York Trilogy, there are allusions to Robinson Crusoe. Give an example from each of the three stories. What is the significance of this allusion? What is the relationship between isolation and writing?

Essay Topic 2

At the end of The Locked Room, the writer reads Fanshawe's red notebook and remarks, "All the words were familiar to me, and yet they seemed to have been put together strangely, as though their final purpose was to cancel each other out. I can think of no other way to express it. Each sentence erased the sentence before it, each paragraph made the next paragraph impossible." What theme from the story is exemplified in this quote? Give three examples of this theme throughout The New York Trilogy.

Essay Topic 3

What is the importance of setting in the three novels that comprise The New York Trilogy? How is the city represented in each of the novels? What associations does New York have with writing and writers?

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