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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. What could Reynolds Price do by himself?

2. What is Reynolds Price's job at the beginning of the memoir?

3. What does Price say he had to do to call Marcia Bennett?

4. What would they share?

5. How was alcohol affecting him in a new way?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Price say was most difficult about the early weeks of radiation therapy?

2. What was the first prognosis for Price's condition?

3. What did Price's doctors recommend for the next step after surgery?

4. What was Price's condition when he stayed with Marcia Bennett?

5. Describe Price's physical deterioration after radiation therapy.

6. Describe Price's stay with Marcia Bennett.

7. Describe Price's condition when he emerged from surgery.

8. What effect did radiation therapy have on Price's body?

9. How did Reynolds Price's health begin to change?

10. What did Price's friend from Florida do for him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The AIDS epidemic began in the U.S. in 1981, only a few years before Price's illness. How does the spectre of AIDS appear in the book, and how does Price handle the panic and dread that comes from a possible death sentence (even though his condition was quite different from AIDS)? Are there thematic similarities with AIDS patients, that give AIDS a resonance in "A Whole New Life"?

Essay Topic 2

What are the different jobs this book does? (Consoling, expressing emotions, testifying, educating, entertaining, etc.) Which jobs does it finish, and which jobs does it do intermittently? Which things does it do for you as a reader? What jobs do you think it did best for Price?

Essay Topic 3

Reynolds Price did not write about being homosexual until years after he wrote "A Whole New Life". Is his homosexual experience apparent in this book? How does the information that Price was gay change your reading of the book? What changes? What stays the same?

(see the answer keys)

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