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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. How old was the author when his mother made him feel like a traitor for writing the fictionalized "Ansel Gibbs" about his father's death?
(a) 35.
(b) 32.
(c) 40.
(d) 52.

2. What did the author's mother use when she "struck to kill?"
(a) Tongue.
(b) Book.
(c) Chair.
(d) Cane.

3. In the Introduction, who does the author quote regarding the definition for "story" versus "plot?"
(a) C.S. Lewis.
(b) R. Kipling
(c) E.M. Forster.
(d) Himself.

4. What was the make of the family car used for the 1936 suicide?
(a) Chrysler.
(b) Chevrolet.
(c) Ford.
(d) Hudson.

5. When the dwarves are offered food, what do they think it is?
(a) Good.
(b) Poisoned.
(c) Spoiled.
(d) Offal.

Short Answer Questions

1. In describing what he learned after his father's death, what does the author consider a means of grace?

2. In the room of the author's mother what kind of magazines are on her chaise lounge?

3. In Part One of the book, what was not a tradition in the Buechner family in relation to death?

4. What renders distinctions between past, present and future meaningless, according to the author?

5. What title did the author write when he was in his fifties and his mom was in her eighties?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does the author describe his father's suicide?

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

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

5. Why did the author feel like a dwarf as depicted in C. S. Lewis' "The Last Battle?"

6. What did the author say he would deal with in this autobiography "Telling Secrets?"

7. How did the author's mother's aging affect her life?

8. How does the author describe God loving us, and loving his daughter?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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