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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 Richard give his father before he drives to his friend's house?

2. What is Sue Ann Corcoran's job?

3. Who accuses Cotter of skipping school?

4. Want does Manx want to do with the baseball?

5. What does Cotter need a note for?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Nick think his mother should move to Phoenix?

2. Why does Marian say she takes heroin?

3. In what way are the men in the bar Nick and Sims go to all hair?

4. How does Cotter get into the baseball game without paying?

5. Who was the Texas Highway Killer?

6. Why does Hoover appreciate Truman's timing in the announcement of the Soviet bomb?

7. Who does Nick say Brian believes he is?

8. Who was Albert Bronzini?

9. How does Marian react to Nick's fling with Donna?

10. What problems does Edgar Hoover have with his appearance?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Klara's character at the beginning of the novel? How does her character change through the novel? How does the author express this change? What events have the biggest impact on Klara's life and why?

Essay Topic 2

How is the Texas Highway killing significant to the story? Why do you think the author does explore the killings and the murderer further?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss elements of the narrative structure; Exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the book's themes?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 680 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample