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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. What does Virginia Stillman do after she walks Quinn to the door in Chapter 3?

2. How does Quinn find out that Stillman has committed suicide?

3. With what name does Quinn introduce himself to Stillman during their second meeting in Chapter 9?

4. Where does Quinn go at the beginning of Chapter 13?

5. According to the telephone conversation at the end of Chapter 1, why does the caller need Quinn to protect him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Stillman invent the persona of Henry Dark? What significance does this name have?

2. What is the danger of Quinn's becoming too bored while following Stillman? Who does he pretend to be in order to combat his boredom?

3. What is revealed about Quinn's family in Chapter 1 of City of Glass? Where is his family now?

4. Where does Stillman go after leaving Grand Central Station? Why is Quinn surprised by this?

5. What is the message spelled out by the letters of the maps in Chapter 8? What does this message reveal to Quinn about Stillman?

6. What job does Virginia Stillman hire Auster to do? How does she expect him to start?

7. At the end of Chapter 13, what does the narrator reveal about himself? How did he become involved in the story?

8. Describe the relationship between Quinn and the counterman at the luncheonette. What interest unites them?

9. In what year did Stillman lock up his son? Why is this significant?

10. What is the first thing that Quinn writes in the red notebook? Why is this significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Doubles are an important element in City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room. Give an example of the use of doubles in each of these stories. What is the function of the double? What does the use of the double communicate about reality and certainty?

Essay Topic 2

Authorship and authority are major themes in City of Glass. Compare the role of Cid Hamete Benengeli in Don Quixote to the role of Quinn in City of Glass. How do these fictional sources reinforce the author's ethos in each case?

Essay Topic 3

Letters are important objects in The New York Trilogy. How do these objects impulse the action of the narrative? Give two specific examples from The Locked Room.

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