"Leviathan" by Paul Auster Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aaron's phone number

The novel begins shortly after Aaron receives a visit from the FBI men. Knowing that the dead man is almost certainly his friend, Benjamin Sachs, Aaron retreats to the outhouse to begin writing Sachs' life story, hoping to finish before the FBI works out the truth.

Answer: They had both been asked to perform a recital of their work

When the weather closed in, Aaron suspected that the event would be called off but, as he had forgotten to take the number of the literary agent who had booked him, he traveled in the hope that it was still going ahead. On arriving, he was told by the barman that the event was cancelled with the words, "Poetry's a beautiful thing, but it's hardly worth freezing for."

As Aaron drank a bourbon to warm himself for the long journey home, a dishevelled beanpole of a man walked in asking if the recital was still on. On being given the same response by the barman, he walked over to Aaron and introduced himself as Ben Sachs. Sachs revealed that the reason Aaron had been invited was down to him. He had recently discovered his work in a number of journals and felt he had to meet him. Thus, their friendship began.

Answer: In prison

Sachs and Aaron settled in for a long session. Sachs was aware of Aaron's work, having seen a rush of it appear in various recent New York literary journals. Aaron was somewhat disadvantaged, having been entirely unaware of Sachs' existence prior to the invitation to perform alongside him. Having searched all over the city, he had been unable to find of copy of "The New Colossus" ahead of their meeting.

Sachs revealed that he considered the novel juvenile and not worth much. However, it was important to him because it had been written whilst Sachs was serving a prison sentence for refusing to serve in Vietnam. When Aaron asked why he had not fled the country like so many other conscientious objectors, Sachs answered that he was far too stubborn and chose to stay and make a stand instead.

Answer: They were students together at Columbia University

Aaron was particular embarrassed because he had been attracted to Fanny, with whom he shared several lectures, despite the ring on her finger. It came as a shock, when they were introduced, to discover that the missing husband that he had envied in the past turned out to be his new best friend.

Answer: The Statue of Liberty

The statue is an emblem that is explored throughout the book. It is the symbol of the American concept of liberty that, nominally at least, is held in such high regard across the country.

The trip that the Sachs family took in 1951 was memorable for different reasons for Ben and his mother. For Sachs, it was the day that, aged six, he won a victory over his mother by striking a deal over the clothes that she forced him to wear. If the children they were meeting up with were not dressed up in their Sunday best, Sachs would be able to choose what he wore from that day on.

For Mrs. Sachs, the day was memorable for the terror she experienced when climbing into the torch of the statue. She found herself unable to make it to the top due to vertigo and had been scared of heights ever since.

Answer: Meeting each person in an address book found on the ground

Maria Turner was a friend of Fanny who became Aaron's lover after meeting him at a dinner party. Her character was based on the conceptual artist Sophie Calle, many of whose real-life projects were woven into the book. Maria's projects included anonymously buying clothes for a man with poor dress sense and eating a monochromatic diet; only orange foods one day; only white foods the next.

Maria was drawn to the randomness of life. The project that led her to Lillian Stern was one that naturally appealed. She found an address book on the ground outside her apartment and figured that she could build up a picture of the man who owned the book by contacting all the people listed within it. She was drawn to one name in particular and chose to start with it. That name was Lili and it stood out because it was the only name that appeared without a surname. Maria discovered the reason for that: Lillian was working as a call girl and so the anonymity of just one name protected both her and her clients.

Maria never established who the owner of the book was but even in the brief period that the project was under way, it led to one marriage, one child and two deaths.

Answer: He fell four stories from a fire escape

The fall fundamentally altered Sachs' take on his life. Because of the nature of the events that led up to it, he saw it as a sign that his life up to that point was over and he needed to make a significant change. He declared an end to his writing career, effectively ended his marriage and searched for a purpose to his life.

Much of the driving force behind the changes Sachs made in his life, was due to his desire to punish himself for his weakness. The fall happened when Sachs was sat on the outside of the fire escape of the apartment that the party was being held in. He was knocked from the fire escape when a drunken woman stumbled when trying to join him. He only survived the fall because he got entangled in a washing line towards the end of his descent.

The reason he was where he was, was because he was flirting with Maria Turner. He had placed himself on the outside of the fire escape so that Maria would put her arms around him, scared that he would fall. As he fell, he felt disgust with himself but also understood that, regardless of whether he survived the fall or not, the person he had been up to that point was dead.

Answer: He was Lillian Stern's husband

Lillian's marriage to Reed Dimaggio came about as a direct result of Maria Turner's address book project. As part of her continuing artistic examination of the sense of self, Maria had asked Lillian if they could swap roles for a day. Maria became a prostitute and Lillian took over the project. One of the first names that Lillian called upon in the book was Reed Dimaggio, a university lecturer. They fell in love almost instantly and married within months.

When Sachs fled the scene of Dimaggio's death, the person he turned to first was Maria, who had become his confidant ever since his accident. As Aaron commented, Maria was the worst person he could have turned to because she was the one person that Sachs knew who could tell him who the man he killed was. Racked with guilt over his part in Dimaggio's death, Sachs chose to make reparation with Lillian, a move that continued the path towards his own early death.

Answer: The Phantom of Liberty

A clear parallel can be drawn between the campaign of The Phantom of Liberty and that of the Unabomber, whose real-life campaign was contemporaneous with the fictional events in "Leviathan".

Bombs are another theme that crops up throughout the book. Sachs always claimed, half-jokingly that he was the first baby of the nuclear age, as he had been born on August 6th, 1945. He went so far as to claim that he was born at the exact second that the bomb dropped.

Sachs' campaign as the Phantom consisted of planting small bombs at the foot of replica Statues of Liberty found in small towns across the country. The bombs were always arranged to go off at a time when no-one would be around to get harmed.

Answer: That someone had recently been impersonating him

Agent Harris, who had visited Aaron at the start of the book, had taken down the names of Aaron's books with the intent of reading one. It just so happened that when he went to purchase one of the books, he chanced upon one that had been signed by the imposter. He bought it and got it dusted for prints. One of the sets of prints belonged to Benjamin Sachs and it was not long before the trail of evidence pointed clearly to the fact that he was the dead man found in northern Wisconsin.

When asked why Sachs, who had not seen him for nearly a year, would have gone around signing his books, Aaron replied "Because he missed me. It was his way of staying in touch."