Book Review: When I read a novel set in a city I know well, I must see that the writer knows the city as well as I do if I am to take that writer seriously. If the writer is faking, I know immediately and do not trust the writer. When a novelist demonstrates the required knowledge, I trust the story teller, so I trust the tale. This trust increases my enjoyment of a good novel. Peter Lee’s second novel is set in San Francisco, in this novel, as in his first, Lee passes my test with flying colors.
Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?
(A) The book reviewer enjoys virtually any novel written by a novelist whom she trusts.
(B) If the book reviewer trusts the novelist as a storyteller, the novel in question must be set in a city the book reviewer knows well.
(C) Peter Lee’s first novel was set in San Francisco.
(D) The book reviewer does not trust any novel set in a city that she does not know well.
(E) The book reviewer does not believe that she knows San Francisco better than Peter Lee does.


OA is .

I think D could have OA but its not the case. Can somebody explain why it is not the OA?

the book reviewer trusts the novel if the author explain the city he knows well correctly. if the author explains the city which book reviewer doesn't know about then he may or may not like the book

so D is not correct answer

to take the book seriously the author should know about the city as well as book reviewer so if he passes in flying colors then the author must know more about the city than the book reviewer

so ans is E

Hey All,

Plenty of good stuff here, but I thought I'd weigh in and take it just a smidge deeper, particularly to help anyone who is still on the fence.

Conclusion: (None -- this is a draw a conclusion question)
Premises: Reader connects enjoyment of book to trust in author to an author who writes about cities they know as well as or better than she does

Notice how convoluted the premises are. That's typical of draw a conclusion questions, so it's important you do your best to WRITE DOWN what the logic is, in your own words, to ensure that you actually understand it.

(A) The book reviewer enjoys virtually any novel written by a novelist whom she trusts.
PROBLEM: We're told that trust increases her enjoyment of "a good novel", which implies the book has to be good anyway. A bad book that she trusted would not be enjoyable.

(B) If the book reviewer trusts the novelist as a storyteller, the novel in question must be set in a city the book reviewer knows well.
PROBLEM: The reader specifies that this whole argument only holds for books set in cities she knows. If she doesn't know the city, she can't apply her criteria, because there's no way for her to know how well the author knows the city in question.

(C) Peter Lee’s first novel was set in San Francisco.
PROBLEM: Not necessarily. She says that she trusted his first novel as well, but it could have been set in SOME OTHER CITY that the reader knew well and that he wrote about knowingly.

(D) The book reviewer does not trust any novel set in a city that she does not know well.
PROBLEM: This makes the same case as B. The reader could very well find some OTHER way to trust a novel set in a city she doesn't know. This argument only holds for books set in cities she knows well (as she says in the first sentence).

(E) The book reviewer does not believe that she knows San Francisco better than Peter Lee does.
ANSWER: This must be true. If the reviewer came away from the book thinking she knew San Francisco better than Peter Lee, he would not have met her criteria for a trustworthy and thus enjoyable book.

Hope that helps!

-t
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Tommy Wallach | Manhattan GMAT Instructor | San Francisco

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The answer is E. The speaker says :

I must see that the writer knows the city as well as I do if I am to take that writer seriously.
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Good question.
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