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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 is the number of the box at the Brooklyn Post Office to which Blue sends his monthly reports?

2. From where was Fanshawe's letter postmarked?

3. In the story The Locked Room, when did the narrator meet Fanshawe?

4. How many suitcases does Fanshawe's work fill?

5. While living in Paris, what appliance does Fanshawe give as a gift to his elderly friend Ivan?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Jane Fanshawe's critique of her son? How does she describe the relationship between Fanshawe and his parents?

2. Why does Fanshawe continue to address his letters to Ellen even after her breakdown? To whom are the letters meant to communicate?

3. What does the narrator learn about Fanshawe through his interviews with Fanshawe's friends and family? What is he looking for that he does not find?

4. Why does the narrator struggle with showing Fanshawe's letter to Sophie? What does he do instead?

5. Who told Blue stories about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge? What was this person's profession and what became of him?

6. When the narrator agrees to Stuart Green's project, what does he decide he will have to be deceitful about? How does this change the work he has been commissioned to do?

7. According to the narrator's recollection, why does Fanshawe give his birthday gift to Dennis Walden? What is the outcome and why is this incident significant for the narrator?

8. When Black speaks to Blue about Walt Whitman, what two internal organs does he compare? What do these viscera have to do with the profession of writing?

9. What project does Stuart Green commission from the narrator? What does Sophie suggest the narrator do to make the project more interesting?

10. What event does Blue leave out of his report that elicits a response from White? What is White's response and what conclusion does Blue draw from this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The New York Trilogy is in part a work of meta-fiction. How so? What does having a character named Paul Auster signify? What does the relationship between Paul Auster and the narrator of City of Glass imply about Auster's attitude towards writing?

Essay Topic 2

Choose two symbols from City of Glass and write an essay about how they are used. Give specific examples from the text. How do these symbols reinforce themes from the story?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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