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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. Why does Quinn decide not to continue following the second Stillman and to instead turn around and follow the first?

2. What book is the girl reading with whom Quinn converses in the waiting room?

3. Where did Virginia and Peter Stillman meet?

4. The second time Quinn awakens in the small room at the back of the apartment, what does he find waiting for him?

5. What is the last sentence written in the red notebook?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the waiting room, what is the girl's opinion of the William Wilson novel that Quinn wrote? What is Quinn's reaction to her opinion?

2. In Chapter 13, where does Quinn go? What does he do there?

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

4. What does Quinn believe is the key to effective detective work? Does his theory prove to be correct? Why or why not?

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

6. 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?

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

8. According to Peter, what was his father's motivation for locking him up in the dark for so many years? Was he successful?

9. What interests Auster about the authorship of Don Quixote? According to Auster, what was the experiment that Don Quixote was conducting?

10. What role does fate have in Quinn's involvement in the Stillman case? What does Quinn consider to be a sign of fate's decision?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the importance of setting in the three novels that comprise The New York Trilogy? How is the city represented in each of the novels? What associations does New York have with writing and writers?

Essay Topic 2

What is the role of women in the New York Trilogy? Compare and contrast Virginia Stillman and Sophie Fanshawe. In what ways are their roles similar? How are they different?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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This section contains 850 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample