View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What really galls Julian about the incident?

2. Where does Julian go two nights later after talking with Libor?

3. What does Emmy suggest Libor do?

4. What does Julian think Tyler should not have to do?

5. Why does Julian refuse Libor's dinner invitation a week after the mugging?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Alfredo explain knowing Sam and knowing about Julian's mugging?

2. What happens to Julian one late summer evening in London on his way home?

3. Who does Julian meet at a party and what do they do?

4. About what do Sam and Tyler feel ashamed?

5. Why doesn't Julian accept a dinner invitation from Libor a week after Julian's mugging?

6. How does Hephzibah feel about marriage to Julian?

7. What does a Gypsy woman tell Julian when he is on a school holiday in Barcelona?

8. What are Julian's sons doing when Julian is revisiting the scene of his mugging?

9. Who is Emmy Oppenstein and how does Libor reconnect with her?

10. What is Libor's first date after widowhood like for him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As Sam and Libor discuss their deceased wives, Sam envies Libor's range of grief and measures his husbandly worth against Libor's. Libor was always faithful to Malkie, and though Sam feels guilty for his infidelities, "It takes two to create fidelity, and while he wouldn't go so far as to say Tyler was not worthy of his, she certainly hadn't made it easy." It seems as though Julian is jealous of the grief that he imagines Sam and Libor experience, but Sam is jealous that Libor is actually mourning for his wife while Sam is simply angry that things did not work out the way he expected.

1. Do you think if a person loses a spouse and does not grieve as much as what most people think they should it means it was a bad relationship? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and the book to support your answer.

2. Discuss the reasons you think Sam believes that Tyler was partly responsible for him being unfaithful. Use examples from your own life and the book to support your answer.

3. Discuss the reasons Julian might be jealous of Sam and Libor and what you think he should do about his jealousy. Use examples from your own life and the book to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. Who is/are the protagonists of the story and why?

2. Who is/are the antagonists of the story and why?

3. Which 3 secondary characters have the greatest impact on the plot?

4. Are any of the characters dispensable and which ones? Why or why not?

5. Do you think this is a character-driven plot or an action-driven plot? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

When Sam first hears that his son was involved in an anti-Semitic incident, he thinks his friends are playing a prank on him to teach him a lesson for his insensitivity earlier in the evening, but since that seems unlikely and he is unable to reach his children when he attempts to contact them, he hires a limo to drive him to Oxford, demonstrating his paternal sentiments. During the drive, he is irrationally anxious, and he curls into a ball and cries because he feels he let Tyler down since he promised to make their children his first priority before she died. He likes his children and wants to make amends for being uninterested in them when they were younger, but he worries it is too late now and wonders if his neglect somehow contributed to the attack.

1. What do you think Sam believing his friends would play a prank on him that involves Antisemitism says about Sam or his friends and their friendship. Use examples from your own life and the book to support your answer.

2. Do you think Sam's behavior on the way to his daughter's house is over reacting? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and the book to support your answer.

3. Do you think when children are adults and a parent has not paid much attention to them the relationship can be changed or is it too late? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and the book to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,207 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample