I enjoyed A Dream of Light & Shadow: Portraits of Latin American Women

I enjoyed A Dream of Light & Shadow: Portraits of Latin American Women Writers for the same reasons that, as a child, I avidly consumed women’s biographies: the fascination with how the biographical details of another female’s life are represented and interpreted.

A Dream offers a rich read, varied in both the lives and texts of the women portrayed, and the perspectives and styles of the sixteen essayists. Yet, as an adult, I have come to demand of any really “great” book a self-consciousness about the tenuous nature of representations of reality, a critical contextualization of florid detail, and a self-awareness of the role of ideology in our lives. In these critical senses, A Dream is inadequate.

1. The author of the passage suggests that A Dream falls short in which of the following respects?

I. It does not appear to recognize that representations of reality can be unreliable.
II. It seems to focus on stylistic variety at the expense of accuracy of detail.
III. It offers a wealth of detail without sufficient critical examination of that detail.

A. I only
B. III only
C. I and II only
D. I and III only
E. II and III only

2. Which of the following best describes the function of the second sentence (“A Dream … essayists”) in the context of the passage as a whole?

A. To give examples of how A Dream presents fascinating portraits that display awareness of the tenuous nature of representations of reality
B. To elaborate on how A Dream fulfills the author’s childhood criteria for a pleasurable book
C. To suggest that the author enjoyed A Dream for reasons more sophisticated than the reasons she enjoyed certain books as a child
D. To illustrate ways in which the author finds A Dream to be inadequate in certain critical senses
E. To imply that A Dream is too varied in focus to provide a proper contextualization of the biographical details it offers