View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the Gypsy girl want to do with Safran?
(a) She wants to break up.
(b) She wants to run away together.
(c) She wants to play games.
(d) She wants to get married.

2. According to Jonathan, what makes women fall in love with Safran?
(a) His dead arm.
(b) His teeth.
(c) His blue eyes.
(d) His wit and charm.

3. Where is Safran going when leaving his apparent lover?
(a) Home.
(b) To the Dial.
(c) Kolki.
(d) The flour mill.

4. What book did Jonathan find in the "In Case" box?
(a) Brod's Diary.
(b) The Book of Past Occurrences.
(c) Safran's Diary.
(d) The Book of Recurrent Dreams.

5. Who does Safran go see after he finds the Gypsy girl in his home?
(a) Lista.
(b) Zosha.
(c) Father.
(d) The Rabbi.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Grandfather pull out of the "In Case" box the first time?

2. Where is the wedding reception held?

3. Who is the bridegroom that the men are waiting for in "The Dial, 1941-1804-1941"?

4. What does Safran get paid to do by the Sloucher congregation?

5. What makes Lista unique?

Short Essay Questions

1. Is Jonathan a reliable narrator? Defend your response.

2. Safran muses "the more you love someone . . . the harder it is to tell them" (234). What is he referencing? Is this true? Why?

3. Why do women fall in love with Safran?

4. After reading "What We Saw When We Saw Trachimbrod, or Falling in Love," the reader might suspect that Lista was a character in her own story. Who might she be? How do you know? Why do this?

5. How does Alex feel about the truth in "Letter Dated 12 December 1997?"

6. Although the novel does not say it directly, based on what is written in the Book of Antecedents, what can we assume Brod asked the Kolker to do? Why would she ask this?

7. What is odd about Zosha's family home?

8. In "Letter Dated 12 December 1997," what does Alex think about Jonathan's writing about Safran? Is this hypocritical? What has Alex learned?

9. Alex has changed throughout the novel. Identify how he has changed by the time he writes "Letter Dated 24 December 1997." What do you think brought about the change?

10. How does the Kolker change in "The Dial, 1941-1804-1941"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,502 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample