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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. Which of the following does Fife order when eating with Nick Dafina?

2. Which of the following does Fife smell on Sloan’s breath?

3. To which of the following does Fife compare his teenaged self and Nick Dafina’s?

4. About which of the following does Malcolm ask Fife?

5. Which of the following does Fife note is his oncologist?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Malcolm note Fife’s filming of Joan Baez and others at her headline event differs from other depictions?

2. Why does Fife note having felt suspicious as he leaves the bank with the deposit check from Alicia’s trust fund?

3. How does Fife describe Amy’s reaction to Boston?

4. What reasons does Fife give Alicia that his marriage to Amy was wrong?

5. How is Stanley described when Fife arrives at his home?

6. How does Fife differentiate biography from autobiography or interview?

7. What items does Fife note having in his briefcase in Boston after being separated from his luggage?

8. What does Fife note is his common public image?

9. What does Fife note as a primary Sunday occupation in St. Petersburg?

10. Why does Fife muse Malcolm and Diana do not care about his account of his life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the symbolism of Fife’s car breaking down at the edge of his hometown at the end of Chapter 12.

Essay Topic 2

Ultimately, is Fife a sympathetic protagonist or not? How does the novel present him as such?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the following passage:

He likes the mingled odor of cigarettes and sweat and minty shampoo. He can’t catch the scent of much, but he can smell her. Young women, their scent is different and better than that of middle-aged and older women. It’s as if desire and longing for desire have distinct and different odors. When Emma leans down in the morning to kiss his cheek before leaving for their production company office downtown, he inhales the smell of English breakfast tea and unscented soap. The odor of a longing for desire. This young woman, Sloan, she smells of desire itself (7-8).

What tone does the passage convey? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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