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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 many bedrooms are there in the house Tony is using in Chapter 14?

2. In Chapter 14, how long has Fern known Tony?

3. What does Tony fix for dinner at the beginning of Chapter 14?

4. What was the name of the woman Fenno met at Tony's exhibition in Paris in Chapter 12?

5. Who in Tony's family was blind?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Felicity respond when Fenno took her to Mal's in Chapter 13?

2. In Chapter 11, why do David and Fenno go through the trash from the dinner that was held after Paul's memorial service?

3. Why did Mal retire?

4. What happened to Mal in Chapter 12 when Fenno went to Paris?

5. In Chapter 10, how were the readings at the bookstore?

6. In Chapter 13, where did Fenno go with Lucinda on a Friday evening?

7. What did Mal spend his time doing at the beginning of Chapter 13?

8. How does Tony leave a place that he has borrowed?

9. In Chapter 11, why did Tony not let Fenno know that he was leaving?

10. In Chapter 10, why was Fenno surprised when he looked for Tony and found a woman at the house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The theme of appreciation for life runs through the novel. Which characters do not appreciate their lives? Why is Fenno especially unappreciative? How do characters and experiences teach Fenno to appreciate life?

Essay Topic 2

Fenno is an angry and miserable person. What choices has Fenno made that cause him to be angry and miserable? How do his feelings affect his relationship with his family? Does he have to change before his relationship with his family can change?

Essay Topic 3

Fenno compares his life to a Joseph Cornell box. In what ways is Fenno’s life compartmentalized like one of those boxes? Why does Fenno keep the sections of his life separate? How does he learn to break out of the compartments of his life?

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