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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 the author of The New Babel?

2. From which historic landmark does Quinn telephone Virginia Stillman for the thirteenth time?

3. Why does Quinn decide not to continue following the second Stillman and to instead turn around and follow the first?

4. According to Stillman, what secret reference do the initials H.D. have?

5. What is Paul Auster's profession?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Stillman go after leaving Grand Central Station? Why is Quinn surprised by this?

2. What is the financial and societal status of the Stillman family? Where do the Stillmans come from?

3. Why is Virginia Stillman scared when Quinn calls her at the end of Chapter 9? What makes her think that Stillman may have contacted Peter?

4. What role does fate have in Quinn's involvement in the Stillman case? What does Quinn consider to be a sign of fate's decision?

5. In Chapter 11, what does Quinn write about in the red notebook? According to his observations, what is the social hierarchy of the vagabond population like?

6. In what year did Stillman lock up his son? Why is this significant?

7. What is revealed about Quinn's family in Chapter 1 of City of Glass? Where is his family now?

8. Why did Stillman invent the persona of Henry Dark? What significance does this name have?

9. What interests Auster about the authorship of Don Quixote? According to Auster, what was the experiment that Don Quixote was conducting?

10. What is the first thing that Quinn writes in the red notebook? Why is this significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The theme of incomprehensibility is present throughout The Locked Room. What makes the writer conclude that life does not make sense? What does this say about the writer's relationship to reality and the challenge of his work?

Essay Topic 2

What is the importance of setting in the three novels that comprise The New York Trilogy? How is the city represented in each of the novels? What associations does New York have with writing and writers?

Essay Topic 3

Letters are important objects in The New York Trilogy. How do these objects impulse the action of the narrative? Give two specific examples from The Locked Room.

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