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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 city does an alleged coordinated sexual assault take place on New Year's Eve in Part IV?

2. What do the journalists say that makes Mazen really lose his temper?

3. What is a favorite "surgeon" joke of Mina's?

4. What word do the journalists use to describe Sammy that upsets Mazen?

5. Where does the man who worked at the jewelry store say he and his family booked flights to get away from the police?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Mina want to buy a Jaguar in her midlife?

2. How did Mazen first begin reestablishing contact with Mina after some years of estrangement?

3. What does the scent of cardamom mean to Mina and the writer?

4. What can Mina not help thinking about women from Deir-ez-Zor?

5. Why does Mazen get so mad at the western journalists' questioning of Sammy and Samaiya?

6. What does Mina really think of the man who says he worked for a jewler?

7. Who is Sumaiya most worried about in her family for after she dies?

8. How did Rasheed help two Iraqi gay men get settled in Europe?

9. What does Mina think of George W. Bush's post-9/11 speech?

10. What destroys the writer's family home in Lebanon eventually?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Mina's affection for Pete Jones, and for his personal life story, decisions, and journey, tell the reader about the human search for meaning and purpose in an unforgiving and brutal landscape? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

How does Alameddine describe Mina's process of gender transition? Why do you think he chooses to pace the revelations about Mina's gender transition the way he does throughout the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

What do you think Alameddine is trying to communicate to the reader with the unnamed writer's panic in hiding in his hotel room for much of his time on Lesbos? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 685 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample