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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 did Ann and Lucy do to find their way out of their miserable lives?

2. What was the amount of the stipend Lucy received as part of the Bunting fellowship?

3. Primo Levi wrote a book about __________________.

4. What kind of job did Ann want?

5. What helped Lucy deal with her life?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was Lucy upset about Ann's dating a poet while living in Kentucky?

2. What did Lucy find strength in what made her consider writing non-fiction instead of fiction?

3. What was so emotionally draining during Lucy's visit to Prague?

4. Describe an event in which Lucy was bullied in Scotland.

5. Why was Ann Patchett looking for an apartment in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1985?

6. Why was Lucy's life such an anomaly?

7. What role did Lucy represent in her friendship with Ann?

8. With whom did Lucy fall in love in Provincetown, and how did he affect her life?

9. What was Ann's experience with the philanthropist adviser in New York?

10. How could Ann's love for Lucy have been called unconditional?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Substance abuse seemed to be an unnamed character in the book. How pervasive was the abuse? Why did it have such a prevalent place in Lucy's life? How did it affect her? How does it affect those impacted by Lucy's abuse? Explain how an inanimate object or characteristic can be a character.

Essay Topic 2

It has been said that creative people such as writers and artists have some degree of mental illness which makes their work brilliant. Explain whether or not you think mental illness shaped Lucy's life and work.

Essay Topic 3

Ann and Lucy spend some time apart throughout the book to contemplate their lives. What do they think about? What conclusions do they arrive at? Explain why they seem to always be in a contemplative mood.

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