Patron Saints of Nothing

1. In the opening chapter, what animal does Jay remember caring for during his visit with his family in the Philippines?

A) a newborn puppy

B) a stray black cat

C) an ancient tortoise he finds on the beach

D) his grandmother’s exotic parrot

2. What best describes Jay’s attitude toward starting college?

A) eager, looking forward to getting away from his parents

B) apprehensive, unsure of both his math and science skills

C) indifferent; he feels he is drifting

D) happy; he sees college as at last a chance to find out who he is

3. What field of study does Jay think he might pursue in college?

A) computer science

B) neonatal nursing, like his father

C) teaching

D) video game designing

4. What best describes Jay’s reaction to the news that his cousin Jun is dead?

A) indifferent; Jay is high on weed

B) depressed; Jay immediately goes to a church and prays

C) uncertain; Jay feels several contradictory emotions

D) worried over his father’s shaken reaction to the news

5. When Jay asks his mother about Jun’s death, how does his mother explain it?

A) Jun was addicted to a potent street drug and was most likely killed by government police cracking down on drug users.

B) Jun was a reckless and wild spirit who often took risks and probably died in some accident.

C) He most likely died from childhood leukemia, which she tells Jay runs in his father’s family.

D) Jun was depressed over life in the Philippines and probably committed suicide.

6. Why does Jay decide to fly to the Philippines?

A) Jay’s father asks him to find out how Jun died, certain Jun’s father was somehow involved.

B) An anonymous Instagram message hints that Jun did not need to die.

C) A man asks him to carry drugs to Manila, offering enough money to pay for a semester of college.

D) The trip is a gift from Jay’s parents, arranged months before Jun died.

7. What does Uncle Maning, Jun’s father, do for a living?

A) He’s a high-ranking government police officer.

B) He’s apparently unemployed, but Jay wonders how the family affords the luxurious home.

C) He’s a teacher in one of Manila’s poorest districts.

D) He’s a doctor.

8. What does Jay do when, on the drive from the airport, a street child raps on the car window and asks for a handout?

A) He gives her money.

B) He ignores her, as his uncle advises.

C) He says a prayer for her and for all the street poor.

D) He offers her his half-eaten sandwich.

9. When Jay settles into the guest room, Jun’s old bedroom, what does he notice that is odd?

A) The only photo on the wall is of Niagara Falls.

B) There is no evidence that Jun ever lived there.

C) There are many soccer trophies—Jay did not know his cousin was a gifted athlete.

D) There’s an elaborate crucifix on the wall and a row of votive candles.

10. When Jay returns to his room on his first night in Manila, what is missing?

A) his pack of letters from Jun

B) his cell phone

C) his wallet with all the money his father gave him

D) a small stash of weed he had hidden in his suitcase

For the following question, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

11. Why does Jun’s letter, which Jay reads during the long flight to Manila, convince Jay that his cousin was not a drug addict? 

12. What does Jay discover in his uncle’s desk when he sneaks into his office?

A) a photo of Jun playing in the ocean

B) a prayer card from Jun’s funeral service

C) a newspaper clipping about a government roundup of known drug dealers

D) a list of names with Jun’s on it; it is in Tagalog, and Jay does not know what it means

13. Where does his cousin Grace take Jay on his first day in Manila?

A) a mall

B) an art museum

C) a cathedral

D) a cemetery

14. The night Mia tells him about the government’s ruthless crackdown on drug addicts and dealers, what does Jay dream about?

A) his home back in Michigan

B) Mia—he thinks he is falling in love

C) Jun’s bullet-riddled ghost

D) jellyfish

15. How does the church service Jay attends affect him?

A) He is barely affected and falls asleep.

B) He is distracted by several government army officers with machine guns guarding the doors.

C) He is moved to tears by the priest’s passionate sermon about human rights violations in Manila.

D) He is angered by the number of homeless people who panhandle during the Mass.

16. What does Jay learn during the family’s visit to the National Museums of the Philippines?

A) nothing—he chooses to stay in the family’s SUV.

B) the role of the illegal drug trade in the Filipino economy

C) the importance of Catholic missionaries to the culture of the islands

D) the long history of foreign occupation of the country

17. When Jay confronts his uncle at the art museum about Jun’s death and his drug use, what best describes his uncle’s reaction?

A) He tearfully admits Jun’s addiction and laments the government’s futile campaign against drug users.

B) He dismisses Jay’s concerns as uninformed and judgmental.

C) He invites Jay to visit any of the city’s rehab facilities to see the problem firsthand.

D) He ignores Jay and pretends there is a language barrier.

18. Why, according to his uncle, was Jun kicked out of the house four years earlier?

A) drug paraphernalia found in his room

B) his participation in an underground human rights movement

C) his admission that he was gay, which Maning disapproved of

D) his refusal to go to church

19. Chato and Ines, Jay’s aunts, have what occupation?

A) They’re teachers in a small Catholic school.

B) They’re real estate investors.

C) They direct a human rights organization dedicated to helping the nation’s poor.

D) They work in an environmental organization cleaning up Manila’s waterways.

20. What best describes the reception Jay receives at his aunts’ home?

A) chilly, they are suspicious of him because he is an American.

B) paranoid, Jay notices they lock up their jewelry right after he arrives

C) confused, Jay has to identify himself multiple times before the old ladies recognize him.

D) hospitable and welcoming, despite being the outcasts of the family

21. What do Jay’s aunts reveal about Jun?

A) Jun got involved in an underground anti-government movement.

B) Jun sold drugs.

C) Jun was most likely gay.

D) Jun dreamed of becoming a priest to help the city’s poor.

22. When Jay looks through Jun’s things that his aunts kept, what does Jay find?

A) a small pink seashell

B) a collection of poems by an American human rights activist

C) a well-thumbed prayer book with a brochure in it about joining the priesthood

D) a recipe for kare-kare, Jay’s father’s favorite meal, a rich Filipino stew

23. Unlike his uncle’s home, what does Jay notice on the walls of the aunts’ home?

A) a crucifix

B) an abstract painting of dazzling lines and colors

C) nothing, he remarks on the emptiness of the walls

D) many framed family photographs

24. A business card Jay finds in Jun’s things leads him to what establishment?

A) a law firm

B) a book shop

C) a laundromat

D) a newspaper office

25. Who first explains the extent of Manila’s underground anti-government movement to Jay?

A) one of Mia’s college professors

B) Mia herself when she shows Jay the scars on her back from a government interrogation

C) nobody, Jay researches it online

D) a priest whom Jay meets near the bookstore

26. What does Jay find out about Jun when Mia calls the phone number on the business card?

A) He had converted to Islam some two weeks before his death,

B) He ran an anti-government website.

C) He had published several love poems under a pseudonym.

D) He had repeatedly sought help from a suicide hotline.

27. What best describes Jay’s reaction to finding out about conditions in the Philippines?

A) He regrets never getting involved but now feels like he is part of something important.

B) He is angry and tells Mia he wants to join the movement and fight the government.

C) He is indifferent and thinks how he just wants to get back home to his video games.

D) He is depressed, certain that nothing can be done.

For the following question, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

28. Everything about Mia causes Jay to question his life. How does her major compare to Jay’s own college plans?

29. Who do Jay and Mia find in Jun’s old apartment?

A) a beautiful young woman living there with a small boy

B) a small group of anti-government activists planning a rally for the next week

C) three drug users strung out on heroin

D) a small Tagalog girl apparently living there by herself

30. Which is true about Reyna?

A) She was Jun’s lover briefly and is the mother of his child.

B) She was formerly a nun but left the convent to pursue human rights activism.

C) A former drug addict, she became a government informant and feels partially responsible for Jun’s death.

D) A survivor of an abusive relationship, she found in Jun’s friendship kindness and compassion she had never known.

31. What does Reyna reveal about Jun and the time they spent together?

A) that he spiraled into drug addiction and turned to selling drugs to buy more drugs

B) that he struggled with guilt over his emotional split with his family

C) that he was arrested multiple times by government agents certain Jun was a political opponent of the government

D) that he never took drugs, never sold drugs, in fact volunteered in street clinics to help addicts

32. What best describes Jay’s state of mind after he meets Reyna?

A) confused over Jun and who he was

B) certain now that he understands the extent of Jun’s drug abuse

C) satisfied that he understands how Jun died

D) indifferent to Jun and to his death but now in love with Mia, whom he sees as a courageous woman of principle

33. What does Jay discover when he scrolls through Grace’s Facebook account?

A) that she is an advocate for gay and lesbian rights

B) that she is a poet with some talent

C) that she traveled to America some years earlier and maintains network ties to friends there

D) that she is passionately opposed to the government’s brutal suppression of any opposition

34. Who sent Jay the anonymous message that initially triggered his interest in Jun’s death?

A) Mia

B) Grace

C) Aunt Chato

D) Mia’s professor friend

35. As he scrolls through Grace’s Facebook account, what best describes how Jay feels?

A) embarrassed that faraway in America he never thought about his native country

B) angry, ready to join the underground gay rights movement

C) confused, uncertain if Jun committed suicide

D)   thankful to live in America and ready to get back home

36. Where does Jay go after he leaves his aunts’ home?

A) back to Michigan, back to civilization

B) to his grandparents’ home in a remote rural region, hours from Manila

C) to Mia’s cramped off-campus apartment to stay until it is time to leave

D) to his uncle’s home in Manila to confront him about Jun’s death

37. What is the subject of Jun’s letter that Grace shares with Jay?

A) his struggle with drug addiction

B) his compassionate concern for Manila’s street people

C) his decision to turn vegetarian

D) his confusion over whether God exists

38. Why does Jay finally confront his uncle over Jun’s death?

A) He is certain his uncle was responsible for Jun’s arrest and execution.

B) He wants to impress Mia with his courage and his commitment to their cause.

C) He hopes his uncle will implicate others in the government responsible for the death squads that terrorize poor neighborhoods.

D) He wants to convert his uncle to help Mia’s anti-government underground.

39. How does Jay’s uncle react to the accusation that he was responsible for Jun’s death?

A) shock that Jay has found out so much

B) angry denial

C) admission of guilt and a promise to turn himself in

D) admission of guilt but pointing out he had to do what he did for the good of the country

40. What is Jay’s Uncle Danilo’s occupation?

A) funeral director

B) mungbean farmer

C) Catholic priest

D) travel writer

41. What does Uncle Danilo reveal about Jun’s father?

A) that right up to his son’s death, he tried to get his son help for his addiction

B) that the government paid the father a generous bonus for the list of names of addicts and dealers that he provided for them

C) that after Jun’s death, his father had stopped going to church

D) that Jun’s father refused to pay for the burial expenses for his son

42. What does Uncle Danilo reveal about Jun’s drug addiction?

A) that months before Jun died, he was clean, just out of rehab

B) that Jun’s addiction was far worse than anyone suspected

C) that Jun stopped using drugs but was heavily into selling particularly toxic street drugs

D) that Jun volunteered for a government rehab program that may have led to his death.

43. Before Jay departs for home, what do he and Grace arrange?

A) a family memorial service for Jun

B) a fund through his aunts’ organization to help drug addicts

C) a picnic to bring together the entire family

D) a memorial Mass to be said in Jun’s memory

44. Before Jay departs for Michigan, what best characterizes what his stay in the Philippines taught him?

A) the impossibility of ever knowing anything for certain

B) the need to oppose autocratic governments through peaceful nonviolence

C) the need to love family unconditionally

D) the importance of social media platforms to help drug addicts

45. What offer does Mia make before Jay departs?

A) to join the underground anti-government movement through social media

B) to stay in Manila and move in with her

C) to cowrite a story about Jun’s life and death

D) to stay with his uncle and matriculate at the local university as a political science major

46. What is the subject of Jun’s letter that Jay reads on the long flight back to Michigan?

A) a dream Jun had about swimming in the open ocean with whales

B) the time he and Jay threw a football when Jay and his family had visited the Philippines, an event Jay does not recall

C) Jun’s love for his country and his pride in being a Filipino

D) saints and the Catholic Church’s protocols for canonization

47. When Jay talks to his father, what does he ask?

A) to take a year off from schooling and work at his father’s hospital

B) to major in journalism

C) his father’s help in launching a website devoted to raising awareness of political and economic conditions in the Philippines

D) to return to the Philippines and join his aunts’ advocacy group and work for human rights

For each of the following questions, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

48. Why does Jay feel both a part of and apart from his Filipino heritage at the beach along the South China Sea?

49. Why does Grace tell Jay she stole Jun’s letters from his backpack?

50. According to Danilo, how did Jun die?

1. This is a coming-of-age narrative. Jay begins with a set of assumptions that by the end he has abandoned. Chart how Jay develops from the moment he learns of Jun’s death to the memorial service when he reads the letter to his dead cousin. In what way is this process a mystery in which nothing is actually solved? How do the events of the novel prepare Jay for adulthood? How is Jay’s final worldview different from his video game world?

2. How does the title function? In what way does Jun become a kind of saint—that is, an inspirational role model—to guide young Jay? How does the novel suggest that “patron saint of nothing” might be read with significant irony? How is Jun both nothing and everything, at once tragic and comic, insignificant and heroic?

3. The figure of Jay’s uncle is central to Jay’s education. How does he emerge from a cartoon villain, dark and vaguely threatening, to a sympathetic, even tragic figure? Why does he react the way he does when Jay suggests he might be responsible for his son’s death? Compare that father and son relationship to Jay’s relationship with his father. How does the drive back from the airport reflect what Jay learned during the memorial service when he notices Jun’s father joining the circle of his family?