1. What kind of buildings are on the lovers' lane?
(a) Giant warehouses.
(b) Bars and strip clubs.
(c) Run-down cottages.
(d) Abandoned factories.

2. What technique is used in the sentence "On my fingers your slick scent mixed with the coconut musk of the suntan lotion we’d repeatedly smeared over each other's bodies" (234) ?
(a) Imagery.
(b) Personification.
(c) Metonymy.
(d) Allusion.

3. What is the description of the condom springing from the narrator's fingers "like a spring from a clock" (235) meant to convey?
(a) The complex nature of growing up.
(b) The pressure of time passing.
(c) The narrator's general clumsiness.
(d) The comical setting of their first attempt at sex.

4. On the fall night when the narrator realizes that his relationship with Gin is over, what are they arguing about?
(a) The drowned woman.
(b) A female poet who has committed suicide.
(c) Whether they will ever have sex.
(d) A series of Elvis movies they saw at a drive-in.

5. In the simile that the narrator uses when he describes holding Gin's breasts in his hands on page 234, to what does he compare her breasts?
(a) Cups.
(b) Water.
(c) A garden.
(d) Fruit.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the rhetorical purpose of including the detail "the skinny rails of your legs" (235) when the narrator is talking about taking off Gin's bikini bottom?

2. What technique is employed in the phrase "How adept we were at fumbling" (233)?

3. What technique is used in the phrase "the forlorn, deflated Trojan" (238)?

4. On page 243, there is a reference to "Casanova." Why is this historical figure mentioned?

5. What detail on page 233 reveals that some time has passed since the events of the story took place?

(see the answer key)

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