View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Francis characterize Helen in bed?
(a) A force to be reckoned with.
(b) A slippery eel.
(c) A sack of potatoes.
(d) A first-rate heller.

2. What makes it possible for Francis and Rudy to eat at the Mission?
(a) They have money.
(b) They are homeless.
(c) They made reservations.
(d) They are sober.

3. What does the narrator say is the real basis of the kinship the young Phelan brothers feel with Francis?
(a) Ireland.
(b) Poverty.
(c) Alcoholism.
(d) Family.

4. What physically connects Francis to the memory of his son’s death?
(a) Birds chirping in the trees.
(b) Tears dropping on his shoes.
(c) The winds in the grass.
(d) The sensation of his own awed astonishment at what happened.

5. What are Francis’ feelings about the house he was born in?
(a) He doesn’t care if it falls down.
(b) He wants to burn it down.
(c) He wishes he could go back there.
(d) He wants to know what it’s like inside now.

6. What does Rudy tell Francis the doctor diagnosed him with?
(a) Alcoholism.
(b) Cancer.
(c) Heart trouble.
(d) Dementia.

7. How does the narrator characterize Francis’ mother’s reaction to his arrival in the cemetery?
(a) Relieved.
(b) Delighted.
(c) Furious.
(d) Nervous.

8. What is Francis guilty about, when he talks to Gerald?
(a) Taking lovers.
(b) Dropping the baby.
(c) Drinking.
(d) Abandoning his family.

9. What physical debility does Reverend Chester have?
(a) Facial scars.
(b) Clubfoot.
(c) Mangled hand.
(d) Blind eye.

10. What does the narrator say Rudy is aware of as Francis approaches Gerald’s grave?
(a) The weather turning colder.
(b) Something momentous happening.
(c) Francis going slightly insane.
(d) The truck starting up, to take them back to the city.

11. Which of the seven deadly sins prompts Francis to get defensive?
(a) Greed.
(b) Lust.
(c) Envy.
(d) Cowardice.

12. How does Francis characterize Clara?
(a) A good bum.
(b) Sick.
(c) Brilliant.
(d) Crazy.

13. Where does Francis Phelan find his family’s graves?
(a) In the earth and sky themselves.
(b) Among the illustrious dead.
(c) Among the flowing masses.
(d) In the unmarked graves.

14. What had Dick Doolan’s job been, when he worked in the Tenderloin?
(a) Gangster.
(b) Bouncer.
(c) Pickpocket.
(d) Cop.

15. How did Francis kill Dick Doolan?
(a) Stabbed him with a fork.
(b) Smashed his skull against a bridge abutment.
(c) Suffocated him in a stream.
(d) Broke his head with a stone.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the narrator say Daddy Big Dugan died?

2. Which street does Francis say he used to own?

3. What year is it in the present moment of the novel?

4. What does Rudy say his religion is?

5. How does Francis say he behaves when he is drunk?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 433 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample