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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the title of the book the author wrote to tell the story of his father to a child?
(a) Now and Then.
(b) The Last Battle.
(c) Ansel Gibbs.
(d) The Wizard's Tide.

2. How many failed marriages did the author's mother have after his father died?
(a) 4.
(b) 3.
(c) 1.
(d) 2.

3. In describing what he learned after his father's death, what does the author consider a means of grace?
(a) Tragedy.
(b) Change.
(c) Patience.
(d) Faith.

4. What does the author describe as the "living heart and command center" of his mother's room?
(a) Bureau.
(b) Bed.
(c) Chaise Lounge.
(d) Dressing Table.

5. Three acts of God mentioned by the author that appear in scripture are the Exodus, the ___, and the entry into the Promised Land.
(a) Covenant.
(b) Confession.
(c) Cross.
(d) Crucifixion.

Short Answer Questions

1. After his father's suicide, where did the author's mom move the family?

2. What was in the bowl on top of the bureau in the room of the author's mother?

3. How many years after his father's suicide did the author write "The Return of Ansel Gibbs?"

4. What condition made it almost impossible for the author's mom to walk during her last year of life?

5. What fell behind the radiator and required that the building superintendent come to retrieve it?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did the author deal with in first two autobiographies?

2. Why does the author write "The Wizard's Tide" and what differs in the book from his childhood memory of his father's death?

3. How did author's mom respond to his fictionalized version of his father's death and how did her reaction to this fist telling affect the author's writing about the death later?

4. Describe the author's mother's bedroom in her 79th street apartment.

5. Why/how does the author identify with one of the stained glass images?

6. What is the most sacred function of memory?

7. According to the author, how does memory help us finish with the past?

8. Why did the author's mother have so few friends as she got older?

9. What was on the stained glass pieces in the author's office?

10. How is the author's story, our story?

(see the answer keys)

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