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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. Why doesn't Cliff Baxter show up for their meeting?

2. What do the cops threaten Keith Landry with?

3. What does Annie Baxter do when she can't get her husband on the phone?

4. What does Keith Landry talk about with the dealer at Baxter Motors?

5. What do Keith Landry and his friends drink at dinner in Chapter 11?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Annie's departure from Keith Landry's house.

2. How does Cliff Baxter try to get information on Keith Landry?

3. What is Cliff Baxter's relationship with Sherry Kolarik?

4. What advice does the pastor give Keith Landry?

5. What happens on the night of Keith Landry's meeting with Cliff Baxter?

6. What was Keith Landry's relationship with Cliff Baxter in high school?

7. Describe the farm Keith Landry returns to in Spencerville.

8. What does Keith Landry do now that he is back in his old hometown?

9. How does the narrator describe the Porters' way of life?

10. What does Keith Landry find when he returns home from the meeting at the Lutheran Church?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How realistic is this book? What parts are not believable? What leaps of faith does the author require of the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Why doesn't Keith Landry urge Annie to remain married, and to work within the bond she had accepted, honoring the vows she once took? Put another way, what makes Annie's marriage to Cliff Baxter so contemptible that we wish, as readers, for it to end? Would there be a virtue to Annie remaining married?

Essay Topic 3

Having just finished his work in the Cold War, Keith Landry returns home to find a new opposition with the brutal police chief. How much does this opposition prolong the Cold War Keith Landry had been part of fighting? Compare and contrast Cliff Baxter and the Soviet Union. Is Cliff Baxter a symbol of repressive regimes?

(see the answer keys)

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