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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. In Chapter Four: Living in Yellow, what does Deborah say she bought for the house?

2. In Chapter Four: Living in Yellow, what does Deborah say happened with her furniture?

3. In Chapter Two: The Tempest, what does Deborah say irritated her about her male colleagues and friends?

4. In Chapter Six: The Body Electric, who does Deborah say she met next at the party?

5. In Chapter Three: Nets, what does Deborah say the breaking of the family home is like?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter Two: The Tempest, what did Deborah say she noticed about her male friends and colleagues? What did this lead her to question?

2. In Chapter One: The Big Silver, who does Deborah say was named "Big Silver"? Why was he called this?

3. In Chapter Six: The Body Electric, what does Deborah say she bought? Why did she buy this?

4. In Chapter Two: The Tempest, what does Deborah say she had seen in Brazil? How had she applied this to her divorcee life?

5. In Chapter Three: Nets, what does Deborah say her neighbor asked about as Deborah had packed up? What had Deborah's family members used these items for?

6. In Chapter Five: Gravity, what did Deborah say she started going through? What does she say the paragraph she read reminded her of?

7. In Chapter Five: Gravity, who does Deborah say came to her rescue? How did this person rescue her?

8. In Chapter One: The Big Silver, who was the couple Deborah Levy said she oversaw talking? How does she say they met?

9. In Chapter Three: Nets, what does Deborah say holds together the family home? What does Deborah say is the disintegration of this story?

10. In Chapter Four: Living in Yellow, where does Deborah say she moved? How does she say she thought about this move?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Deborah's grief over her mother and the sense of unmooring from the physical places her mother inhabited are alongside her grief over her marriage and the sense of unmooring from everything Levy spent her life creating. How does Levy show these griefs as similar and different? How are they both dealt with and how are they mourned both by actions described or by the act of writing the book?

Essay Topic 2

Cost of Living ends:

"The writing you are reading now is made from the cost of living and it is made from digital ink" (134).

What is "the cost of living"? What is it for Deborah throughout the book? Do different people from the book have different definitions of what the cost is? Use several examples to craft your argument of what the cost really is.

Essay Topic 3

The Cost of Living is an autobiography written by a writer with a playwright background. Which parts of the book seem most theatrical and suited to the theatre to you? Choose two passages that seem most theatrical to write, how does Deborah's experience and knowledge of the theatre shape the way she writes this autobiography?

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