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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. What was Nola's mother's first name?

2. What did Ernie tell Harry he had discovered about his past?

3. What nickname does Tamara Quinn call her husband?

4. What type of writing did Harry tell Marcus to exclusively write?

5. Who showed up at the Quinn's house the night of the garden party to take Jenny to dinner?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Harry tell Marcus is the only way to know if he really loved someone?

2. What did Travis Dawn habitually do before he would speak to Jenny?

3. What crucial piece of information did Nola's friend Nancy Hattaway tell Marcus that resulted in a critical misunderstanding later in the book?

4. Why did Marcus think that Nola had been having an affair with Elijah Stern?

5. After Marcus began receiving threatening notes, what happened that was a far more dangerous warning for him to stop his investigation?

6. What did Marcus's publisher, Roy Barnaski, tell Marcus he wanted his book about Harry to include more of?

7. How did Marcus achieve his successes in high school and college, in both sports and writing?

8. Why did Marcus decide to write a book about Harry and Nola's relationship and Nola's murder after insisting he would not?

9. What did Harry tell Marcus about the second chapter of a book?

10. What event led directly to Nola's suicide attempt?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does the idea of Writer's Heaven mean to Harry? Write an essay explaining what Writer's Heaven, as Harry describes it to Marcus, symbolizes as the book comes to its conclusion.

Essay Topic 2

Why does Harry title the manuscript The Origin of Evil, even though it is ostensibly a love story?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Dicker's treatment of writing both as an art form and a business enterprise. Consider the interactions, decisions and dialogue of both Harry and Marcus, two famous writers, on this topic in forming your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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