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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. Where did Jenny's parents live when Jeremy first met them?

2. As she lay ill in bed, who do we learn June is jealous of as regards Bernard?

3. When Jeremy spoke with Bernard, how did he feel about June?

4. What was June's job when she first encountered Bernard?

5. To whom does Jeremy dedicate his memoir?

Short Essay Questions

1. In June's version of how she and Bernard first met, she actively pursues him, making sure that Bernard sees her when he is near his office. She even tries to make small talk with him. Why does June pursue Bernard when he does not even seem to notice her?

2. In Bernard's version of how he and June first met, he says that he could see no point in her job, therefore he did not notice her at all. In his world, she did not even exist until someone told him that she was beautiful. What might this say about Bernard's personality?

3. When June tells Jeremy that she and Bernard were still obsessed with each other in a physical way, what is Jeremy's reaction?

4. Does Jeremy feel like a surrogate parent to Sally?

5. Why is Jeremy in such discomfort at a point in Part One when June is speaking to him of God and religion?

6. How does June feel that Bernard is so different from her?

7. Why did June and Bernard separate, according to the Preface?

8. In what way do Jeremy and June disagree on June's reference to her story of the black dogs in Part One of the story?

9. During one of her conversations with Jeremy, June talks about her obsessive relationship with Bernard and their love for one another that could not work. How does June find peace with this?

10. When Bernard's grandson, Alexander, asks his cousin, Harry, at June's burial when his grandma will be coming back, how does Harry's answer nearly sum up June's and Bernard's relationship problems?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Jeremy intervenes in the beating of the boy at dinner, who is he really thinking of? Is the young woman a symbol of anyone? What about the father or the waitress?

Essay Topic 2

What does the last line in the book mean ("...as sleep rolls in they are receding from her, black stains in the gray of the dawn, fading as they move into the foothills of the mountains from where they will return to haunt us, somewhere in Europe, in another time")?

Essay Topic 3

What problems do the three main characters in this story encounter? Do they manage to resolve them by the end of the book?

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