Farewell to a Ghost – General Understanding Quiz

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Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

The House on Mango Street / Those Who Don’t / Alicia and I Talking…
Three Vignettes by Sandra Cisneros. Each deals with an aspect of "place". A Mexican-American family moves to a new neighborhood that most outsiders consider dangerous. Their small house is special because they own it. A year later, the protagonist wonders why the new house still doesn’t feel like "home".
The Prussian Officer
Novelette by D. H. Lawrence. An aristocratic officer becomes envious of and sexually attracted towards his male orderly. Sensing what is happening, the orderly is cooler than usual towards him. The agitated officer responds cruelly, and the tension between them mounts until the orderly can take no more.
The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket
Quick Read by Yasunari Kawabata. The narrator observes a group of Japanese children on an insect hunt. He relates an interaction between a boy who finds a highly prized bell cricket and the girl he presents it to, and reflects on the relationship between destiny, love, and perception.

Another Pioneer
Novelette by David Foster Wallace. A three-year-old boy in a paleolithic jungle tribe has the seemingly magical ability to correctly answer any question. The tribe prospers until the boy reaches puberty, when his answers begin to challenge questioners and the tribe’s ancient beliefs. Fear on both sides leads to tragedy.
There is a Reaper
Short Story by Charles de Vet. When doctors tell a man that he has just one month to live, he begins to wonder what comes afterward. To find out, he commits murder and asks the dead man. The frightening answer is not what he had expected.
The Cask of Amontillado
Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe. On the pretext of going to a wine-tasting, an Italian noble takes revenge for an insult by leading a drunk ‘friend’ to a claustrophobic end. The horror aspect is enhanced by the ambiguity about the seriousness of the insult that lead to the murder.
The Invention of Morel
Novella by Adolfo Bioy Casares. A fugitive hiding on a deserted Pacific island falls in love with a woman among a group of “tourists”. The woman (and tourists) teat him as if he doesn’t exist. In reality, they don’t exist and his dying wish is to join them.

Babycakes
Quick Read by Neil Gaiman. A disturbing satire about a world where all animals disappear overnight. Someone comes up with the bright idea of replacing them with babies. Babies are then used for food, to make leather, and for product safety testing. Eventually, all the babies are gone. What next?
Exchanging Glances
Short story by Christa Wolf. A middle-aged German woman recalls her time as a displaced teenager fleeing the Russians with her family in the final days of World War II. She recounts the horror of the refugee caravan, and some confronting experiences on reaching the “safety” of American lines.
The Flying Machine
Short Story by Ray Bradbury. A Chinese Emperor learns that one of his subjects has invented a “flying machine”. Thinking the invention could be used against him if the “technology” fell into the wrong hands, he has the man be executed, the kite destroyed, and the whole episode hushed up.