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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. According to Reta's writer friends at the Orange Blossom Room, why are women excluded from real life?

2. Why does Natalie thank Reta on Christine's birthday in October?

3. What two languages are spoken during Reta's childhood?

4. According to Reta, what are women still dismissed and excluded from?

5. What problem does Reta initially attribute Norah's disappearance to when she first goes missing?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Reta Winter's thoughts and feelings as the novel opens.

2. During Norah's visit from university the previous year, Reta states that she knew how "wildly out control" Norah was, how "she'd become dangerous to her own being." Describe why Reta comes to this conclusion.

3. What does Reta do each month that indicates her attempt to live up to an idea of "goodness?"

4. What does Reta's husband Tom do for a living and how is it significant concerning Norah's absence?

5. How does the American election results in Florida that Tom, Christine, and Natalie watch relate to Norah's absence?

6. Why do Reta and her writer friends at the Orange Blossom Room conclude that the concepts of goodness and greatness are incompatible for women?

7. Describe Reta's feelings about the formation of her inner dialogue, the "longest conversation" that goes on in a lifetime in a person's mind.

8. How does Reta respond to the death of Mr. Scribano and how is it significant?

9. Why does Reta wake up with anxiety about cleaning her house?

10. Why does the memory of shopping for the perfect scarf for Norah haunt Reta as a "big female secret" and what does the scarf represent?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss grief as a major theme of the novel, especially the expression of suffering, responding to the following questions:

1. How does Reta cope with her grief?

2. How are Norah's actions a manifestation of grief?

3. What is the relationship between memory and grief?

Essay Topic 2

Another major theme in the novel is the issue of homelessness and its consequences for the people affected by it.

1. Identify some preconceptions about homelessness that are disproved by the characters' actions.

2. What is Shields' overall message about people who are homeless?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role of setting in the novel, responding to the following questions:

1. What facts about the city of Toronto relate directly or indirectly to the lives of the characters?

2. What facts about the time in which the novel is set, 2000-2001, relate directly or indirectly to the novel's themes and overall meaning?

(see the answer keys)

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