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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. Over the thirteen years preceding Aqua's death, how much does Van calculate that he's spent with her?

2. After Van returns from washing his hands, where does he find Ada?

3. What does Dack run through the house with?

4. What contact with Ada excites Van?

5. What feature of Ada does Van most delight in?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the encounter between Blanche and Van.

2. How does Marina describe Jews to her daughter?

3. What does Blanche look like as she is ready to leave?

4. What are the rules of marriage among relatives that Van and Ada discuss?

5. What did Ada do when Dr. Krolik died?

6. What does Marina chastise Van for, after calling him into her room?

7. How does Lucette want to draw flowers, when her sister is trying to teach her to draw?

8. How does young Van feel about Ada?

9. Where and in what circumstances do Van and Ada first have sex?

10. What do Demon think of Marina's career as an actress?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Terra and Antiterra in the novel.

1) Why does the author set the novel in an alternative reality, an "Antiterra"? What role does the imaginary planet, a mirror of our "real" world, play in the novel?

2) How do the characters envision Terra? What do their perceptions of Terra show about the characters themselves?

3) How do Terra and Antiterra differ? Compare the two worlds of the novel.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the structure of the novel.

1) What role does each of the five parts of the novel play? How does each represent a specific period in the relationship of Ada and Van, and how are those periods different from each other?

2) Why is the first book the longest? Why is the fourth book a single chapter?

3) In what ways is the structure chronological? How and why does it break out of chronological order?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss madness in the novel.

1) What is Aqua's madness in the novel? Why does she go from sanitarium to sanitarium, and why does she kill herself?

2) What types of madness do Van's patients display? Why do mad patients see visions of Terra in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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