View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Long Distance Runner," who did Richardson take to France when Didion and her husband were unable to join him?
(a) Didion's brother.
(b) He went alone.
(c) Their daughter.
(d) His daughters.

2. In "Long Distance Runner," what argument does Didion cite when discussing how Richardson liked to be contrary?
(a) That all silent films should be overdubbed.
(b) That all foreign films should be made in English.
(c) That all of his films should be burned.
(d) That all black and white films should be colorized.

3. In "Telling Stories," what novel does Didion say developed from her notes that began about a man and woman in New York?
(a) A River Runs Through it.
(b) A Book of Common Prayer.
(c) Run River.
(d) The Sacramento River.

4. In "Last Words," what is Hemingway said to have done to his letters after Ford Madox Ford told him to "write a letter thinking of how it would read to posterity"?
(a) He published his letters.
(b) He locked up all his letters.
(c) He rewrote all of his letters.
(d) He burned his letters.

5. How does Didion describe Richardson when in the act of filming a movie?
(a) Serious.
(b) Deliriously engaged.
(c) Hopelessly disorganized.
(d) Distant.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of the male character in A Book of Common Prayer which Didion discusses in "Why I Write"?

2. In "Why I Write," what does Didion say she "plays by ear" (44)?

3. What was Didion suffering from which became one of the images used in her novel A Book of Common Prayer?

4. In "Some Women," what does Robert Mapplethorpe say is present in the way he arranges things for his photo shoots?

5. Didion says that one of the pictures in her mind when she began her novel Play it as It Lays came from an incident in what city?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Didion first think Run River was a story about, and what did it become?

2. What does Didion say about the title for her talk "Why I Write" at the start? From whom did she steal the title and what did she like about it?

3. What examples from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Didion's own work does she cite as examples of artist superstitions?

4. Describe the scene from "Long Distance Runner" when Didion and her husband arrive at St. Tropez to pick up their daughter.

5. What does Didion say about the first paragraph of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in "Last Words"?

6. What example does Didion cite as proof that Hemingway did not want his letters to be published after his death in "Last Words"?

7. Where did Didion attend photoshoots in her story "Some Women," and what does she say she noticed about the most successful shoots?

8. In "Telling Stories," how does Joan describe what she learned about writing while working at Vogue?

9. Who is Tony Richardson and how is he described in the two pictures Joan discusses at the start of "Long Distance Runner"?

10. What does Didion say of Richardson's often contrary behavior?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 914 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample