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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. Who is Arturas?

2. What does Cy offer Nina?

3. What does Claudia do to Grace's assailant?

4. What is Grace's attacker's plan?

5. Who is in Cy's tattoo parlor when Grace first visits?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator say about the light in Brooklyn?

2. What secret of Claudia's does Grace hold?

3. What is the connection between the game of chess and Grace?

4. What does Grace want from Cy and why do you think she wants it?

5. How had Grace come to be known by some many so that perhaps Sedak knows of her and judges her?

6. When Grace is out of the hospital and visits Cy, how is her body described and how does Cy respond?

7. Why does Cy stay open on rainy days and describe one such day.

8. How does Cy compare Coney Island to Morecambe?

9. What does Cy think about Coney Island and how do you interpret that?

10. How does Claudia become to have so many tattoos and to what does that lead Artura and Claudia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Part 2, "The Lady of Many Eyes," there is a description of the baby incubation exhibition. Answer the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What is the baby incubation exhibition? Could something like that exist except in fiction?

2. How is the baby incubation exhibition related thematically to the rest of the book?

3. Why does Claudia go there week after week? Do you think there would ever come a time when she would stop? When? Why would she stop going there?

4. Why do you think Claudia will allow Grace to lead her away from the baby incubation exhibition? What does this say about the friendship between the two?

5. Would you ever want to go to a baby incubation exhibition? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

In Part 2, "History's Ink," Malcolm Sedak pours acid upon Grace. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text, your research or personal experience:

1. What foreshadowing is there to warn the readers of the scene at the opening to "History's Ink" when Grace is horribly attacked? Give examples and why you think the examples foreshadow the event. Do you think something as intense as this scene needs to be foreshadowed? Why or why not?

2. Discuss the various responses to the attack. Was Claudia justified in beating Sedak? How about Henry giving Grace morphine or Cy believing he has to stay in the hospital or Grace will die? What do you think was Grace's thoughts about it as she lies in the hospital?

Essay Topic 3

The following idea is found in Part 1, "Bloodlights": Symbols from sports, the religion of the masses, along with hearts and flowers are easily understood, but women and fish intertwined are something entirely different. The association is primal and instinctual. Cy can draw dozens of mermaids in a variety of provocative, sultry, saucy poses. The smell, taste and slipperiness of the territory men worship between a woman's legs are transformed into images as aphrodisiac as oysters. The designs have been perfected over centuries, half woman, half cunt-fish and eternal sex. Choose one of the following and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Respond to the statement above and answer the following questions: What does this statement mean to you? Is it sexist? Does it portray women in a derogatory fashion? Or set them up on an unreachable pedestal? Compare and contrast the way you think a man would interpret the above statement versus a woman.

2. Trace the image of the mermaid throughout the text citing where it appears and analyze the context within the situation where it appears. How does the image of mermaids fit into the context of the book as a whole?

3. In Part 1, Salvaging Renaissance, Cy thinks to himself that he would like to court some of the customers, but he knows Riley's rules of courtship are to learn to slap, grip, fist and dog-mount them. How is that statement like and unlike the one mentioned at the beginning? What does each statement say about Cy as a man? About Riley as a man?

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