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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. To what does the narrator compare cinephiles?

2. Which author’s residence does Lucien point out to the narrator?

3. Which of the following had participated along with Occitan nationalists in protests against a French military base?

4. What make of vehicle does Lucien’s uncle drive?

5. To what does the narrator compare terrine?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Bruno posit that the Neanderthals first used tobacco?

2. To what does Bruno ascribe the persistence of wild-man legends?

3. How had a megabasin in Limousin been sabotaged?

4. What does the narrator say about beauty?

5. What is eau-de-vie?

6. What does the narrator find evoked by Lucien’s posture when she first meets him?

7. Why does the narrator sleep well on her first night lodging near the Moulinards?

8. What reasons does the narrator posit for Bruno keeping his fires small?

9. What does the narrator note is the fate of those alongside whom she had pursued graduate schooling?

10. What does the narrator note is the trick of riding backwards?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Kushner’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 2

Readerly attention makes much of the narrator’s comment that “Charisma does not originate inside the person called ‘charismatic.’ It comes from the need of others to believe that special people exist” (17). Do the novel and experience bear out the comment? How or how not?

Essay Topic 3

Sources attest to the presence of Creation Lake on best-seller lists. Assuming that sales figures reflect popularity, what accounts for the popularity of the novel? How does it do so?

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