Something to Tell You MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature


Updated on: November 9, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 16 min

Something to Tell You MCQs

1. What is Jamal Khan’s primary profession?

A. Film writer
B. Psychoanalyst
C. Library worker
D. Theatre director

B. Psychoanalyst.
Jamal deals in secrets for a living and refers to his work as seeing patients in his consulting room and analysing minds.

2. What major historical event does Jamal live with daily?

A. A terrible flood
B. A real murder
C. His divorce
D. A financial scam

B. A real murder.
Jamal confesses that he lives every day with a real murderer, and he is the killer.

3. Why does Jamal prefer patients to lie on the couch?

A. For better dreams
B. To promote relaxation
C. Freud disliked staring
D. It is an old tradition

C. Freud disliked staring.
Jamal explains he prefers patients to lie down, noting that Freud did not like being stared at all day.

4. What is Henry Richardson’s professional identity?

A. Eminent painter
B. Psychoanalyst
C. Theatre director
D. War reporter

C. Theatre director.
Henry is introduced as a director in theatre and film, an intellectual focused on ideas.
5. What part of a theatre trip did Miriam enjoy the most?

A. The applause
B. The intervals
C. The actors’ faces
D. The first act

B. The intervals.
Miriam liked everything about the theatre except the plays, preferring the interval with booze and cigarettes.

6. What happened to Henry within fifteen minutes of a play starting?

A. He praised it
B. He fell asleep
C. He stood up
D. He started shouting

B. He fell asleep.
Henry would inevitably fall asleep quickly, gurgling gently against the neck of the person next to him.

7. What did Henry call the London area near Hammersmith?

A. The cultural wasteland
B. A Middle Eastern city
C. The ghetto
D. A dangerous area

B. A Middle Eastern city.
Jamal notes that Henry referred to the area between Hammersmith and Shepherd’s Bush as a great Middle Eastern city.

8. Why did Henry turn down an OBE?

A. He disliked the queen
B. He feared respectability
C. He wanted more money
D. He preferred fame

B. He feared respectability.
Henry turned down the OBE because the respectability of his generation was making him cràzy, preferring to keep the dissident flag flying.

9. What materials did Henry use for his sculptures?

A. Old plastic, wire
B. Egg-boxes, Polyfilla
C. Marble and stone
D. Wood and oil

B. Egg-boxes, Polyfilla.
Henry made sculptures using wire and plaster, or a mixture of egg-boxes combined with Polyfilla.
10. According to Henry, what is the only negation of murder?

A. Love and peace
B. Justice
C. Culture
D. Money

C. Culture.
Henry argues that only culture, such as writing a play, opposes death and the human desire to murder.

11. How does Henry distinguish between love and desire?

A. Love is intellectual
B. Desire is safety
C. Desire is foul
D. Love is better

C. Desire is foul.
Henry argues that love is safety, but desire is foul, suggesting that desire leads to excess.

12. What does Maria fear Henry is truly suffering from?

A. A terrible divorce
B. Career disaster
C. Terrible humiliation
D. Alcoholism

B. Career disaster.
Henry tells Maria his career is a disaster, leading her to later ask Jamal if Henry’s work is truly failing.

13. Why did Lisa leave the Opera House during the show?

A. She felt giddy
B. She found it boring
C. She was too hungry
D. She received a call

A. She felt giddy.
Lisa found the Opera House so “rococo” that she became giddy and delirious, forcing her to leave at the interval.

14. What activity did Henry often overhear his son Sam doing?

A. Studying late
B. Playing loud music
C. Making love
D. Crying softly

C. Making love.
Henry, lying in bed, frequently heard Sam making love at night and in the morning.
15. What did Henry call the Mule Woman walking in her dressing gown?

A. A true angel
B. Helen of Troy
C. A sad actress
D. A film director

B. Helen of Troy.
Henry declared that his son brought a woman into the flat more beautiful than Helen of Troy.

16. What old conflict did Henry compare the clash of civilisations to?

A. Wealth and poverty
B. Puritans and liberals
C. Mèn and women
D. Writers and actors

B. Puritans and liberals.
Henry suggests that the conflict between civilisations is only a new version of the conflict between puritans and liberals.

17. What did Josephine often use to communicate her difficulties?

A. Shouting
B. Writing letters
C. Her ailments
D. Silent treatment

C. Her ailments.
Josephine constantly communicated through her illnesses, presenting her body in a perpetual state of crisis.

18. What was Rafi’s temporary nickname for Jamal?

A. Sad fat man
B. Mr. Cunty Cunt
C. The mind doctor
D. Old dude

B. Mr. Cunty Cunt.
For a while, Rafi referred to Jamal only as “Mr Cunty Cunt,” showing respect with the “Mister”.

19. Which publication did Rafi choose as his favourite book at school?

A. Aristotle
B. Argos catalogue
C. Bible
D. Freud

B. Argos catalogue.
Rafi treated the Argos catalogue as his favourite book, meticulously ticking everything he desired.
20. What did Jamal conclude was the ultimate freedom?

A. Accepting obligation
B. Sexual liberty
C. Being respected
D. Financial success

A. Accepting obligation.
Jamal wonders if ultimate freedom means choosing the obligations that firmly tie one to life.

21. What did Jamal compare Freud’s idea of repetition to?

A. Daemonic death
B. A boring song
C. True happiness
D. A love letter

A. Daemonic death.
Freud described the repetition compulsion as “daemonic” and characterised it simply as death.

22. What was the father’s profession of Miriam’s first child?

A. A doctor
B. A policeman
C. A cabdriver
D. A postman

C. A cabdriver.
Miriam’s first child was provided by a cabdriver whose fare she could not afford one night.

23. What was Bushy’s previous job before becoming a cabbie?

A. A burglar
B. A postman
C. A bus driver
D. A cleaner

A. A burglar.
Before Bushy became a cabbie, he had been a burglar and considered Jamal a mate for having attempted burglary.

24. What anatomical feature did Bushy fear was transforming?

A. His long eyebrow
B. His nose
C. His large chin
D. His tiny ears

B. His nose.
Bushy feared a groove in his nose was getting worse, worrying that it was turning into a backside.
25. What questionable product did Miriam and Jamal sell for profit?

A. Stolen art
B. Turgeniev vodka
C. Chinese furniture
D. Broken washing machines

B. Turgeniev vodka.
Jamal helped Miriam obtain a consignment of stolen Turgenev vodka, from which they made “good honest profit”.

26. What term did Miriam use to describe Jamal’s patients?

A. Egotists
B. The sane
C. The afflicted
D. Nutters

D. Nutters.
Miriam frequently referred to Jamal’s patients, who sought help for mental illness, as “nutters”.

27. What did Miriam value more highly than books?

A. Quiet time
B. Hard work
C. Experience
D. Family time

C. Experience.
Miriam believed reading was a waste of time, arguing that books could not compare to real life experience.

28. What insult led Father to return permanently to the subcontinent?

A. A racist comment
B. Being betrayed
C. Loss of his job
D. His wife’s anger

A. A racist comment.
Father felt humiliated when a girlfriend’s mother asked if he could eat with a knife and fork, leading him to leave Britain.

29. What did Father call Karachi, Pakistan?

A. The family home
B. The new country
C. An angry place
D. Bombay’s shadow

B. The new country.
Father settled in Karachi, Pakistan, after returning to the subcontinent, calling it “the new country”.
30. What unusual canned food did Father request from Britain?

A. Fresh fish
B. Corned beef
C. Baked beans
D. Condensed milk

B. Corned beef.
Father was partial to corned beef and had specifically requested Jamal bring cans of it to Pakistan.

31. What academic requirement was Ajita fulfilling by taking philosophy?

A. An arts degree
B. Another module
C. A legal test
D. A fun class

B. Another module.
Ajita was studying law and needed to take another “module” to complete her university course.

32. How was Ajita’s father exposed in a documentary?

A. As a Marxist
B. As a greedy villain
C. As a hero
D. As an artist

B. As a greedy villain.
A Cambridge-educated Communist director exposed Ajita’s father as a merciless exploiter and archcapitalist.

33. What item did Ajita use to barricade her door against her father?

A. A wooden wedge
B. A large mirror
C. A strong chain
D. Her body

A. A wooden wedge.
Ajita confessed that she put a wedge under her door to try to stop her father from entering her bedroom.

34. Who did Ajita initially blame for her father’s death?

A. Jamal
B. Wolf
C. The strikers
D. A heart attack

C. The strikers.
Ajita told Jamal over the phone that the strikers came to the house and scared her father to death.
35. What sharp tool did Jamal take to Ajita’s house?

A. A garden trowel
B. A mother’s knife
C. A broken razor
D. A carving fork

B. A mother’s knife.
Jamal had a knife (one of Mother’s kitchen knives) with him on the night he confronted Ajita’s father.

36. What was the title of Mustaq’s song dedicated to Jamal?

A. Heart Torn Apart
B. Thin White Duke
C. Mad Professor
D. I Love You

A. Heart Torn Apart.
Mustaq sang his own song, “Everyone Has Their Heart Torn Apart, Sometime,” which was later about Jamal.

37. What future job did Mustaq reveal he wanted as a teenager?

A. Film director
B. Fashion designer
C. Restaurant owner
D. Accountant

B. Fashion designer.
Mustaq told Jamal that he wanted to be a fashion designer, but asked him not to tell anyone.

38. What was Wolf and Valentin’s plan after leaving London?

A. Buy a house
B. Work on boats
C. Become journalists
D. Start a business

B. Work on boats.
Wolf told Jamal that after the incident, he and Val worked on boats in the South of France.

39. What happened to Valentin, Jamal’s friend, after the incident?

A. Became a teacher
B. Committed suìcide
C. Travelled the world
D. Married Ajita

B. Committed suìcide.
Wolf mentioned that Valentin had killed himself, implying he was one of the “lost ones”.
40. Where did Jamal read Philosophical Investigations during his commute?

A. On the train
B. In the library
C. At the college
D. In the pub

A. On the train.
Jamal read Philosophical Investigations and The Interpretation of Dreams during his long commute on the train.

41. What classic book did Jamal hide under his bed?

A. The Ego and Id
B. The Interpretation of Dreams
C. Civilisation and Discontents
D. The Three Essays

C. Civilisation and Discontents.
Jamal kept Freud’s Civilisation and Its Discontents under his bed, topped by a paperback to hide it.

42. What was Tahir Hussein’s nationality and religion?

A. British Muslim
B. Indian Hindu
C. Pakistani Muslim
D. German Jew

C. Pakistani Muslim.
Tahir Hussein was a Pakistani Muslim, which was unusual for an analyst in England at that time.

43. What did Tahir Hussein say swallowed psychoanalysis like a minnow?

A. Philosophy
B. Mathematics
C. Literature
D. Poetry

C. Literature.
Tahir Hussein said that literature was bigger than psychoanalysis and swallowed it like a minnow.

44. What sudden physical reaction did Jamal experience after his first session?

A. Uncontrolled defecation
B. Miraculous healing
C. Sexual excitement
D. Extreme calm

A. Uncontrolled defecation.
After his first session, outside on the street, Jamal began to weep, vomit, and defecate uncontrollably.
45. What realisation did Karen have about their relationship?

A. He was kind
B. He was too selfish
C. He loved Ajita
D. He was too busy

C. He loved Ajita.
Karen realised that Jamal had been in love with Ajita the entire time and couldn’t accept that she was gone.

46. Why did Karen say she only married the wrong person?

A. She needed stability
B. Jamal made her second-best
C. She hated London
D. For quick revenge

B. Jamal made her second-best.
Karen felt second-best because of Jamal’s unrequited love for Ajita, leading her to marry the first person who noticed her.

47. What gift did Mustaq give Ajita for her birthday?

A. A valuable watch
B. A designer dress
C. A holiday to Venice
D. A new car

C. A holiday to Venice.
The trip to Venice, which Ajita asked Jamal to join, was Mustaq’s gift to her for her birthday.

48. Who organised Wolf’s body transport after he died in Soho?

A. Ajita’s husband
B. Jamal’s sister
C. Mustaq’s office
D. The police

C. Mustaq’s office.
Mustaq’s office located Wolf’s sister in Germany and made arrangements for his body to be flown home.

49. What creature did Dante compare the “inveterate wolf” to in Jamal’s thought?

A. A bottomless maw
B. A cowardly lion
C. A sly jackal
D. A roaring tiger

A. A bottomless maw.
Jamal recalls Dante’s line describing the inveterate wolf whose gorge is never filled, having a bottomless maw.
50. How did Henry characterise Miriam’s desire to appear on TV shows?

A. Vulgar and idiotic
B. Brave and original
C. Necessary work
D. Great journalism

A. Vulgar and idiotic.
Henry found Miriam’s desire to work on the confessional TV programmes to be vulgar and idiotic.

Brief Overview

Something to Tell You is a novel by Hanif Kureishi, published in 2008. The book directly engages with psychoanalytic concepts such as the unconscious, trauma, memory, and the process of making the unconscious conscious to achieve resolution.

The novel is about Jamal, a psychoanalyst who carries a heavy, old secret about a murder. Years ago, when Jamal was a student, he and his friends, Wolf and Valentin, confronted Ajita’s abusive father. They intended only to scare him, but the father died from a heart attack during the confrontation.

Jamal tries to live a quiet life now as a psychoanalyst, divorced from Josephine, with a son named Rafi. His sister, Miriam, starts an unusual love affair with Henry, a famous theatre director.

The past violently returns when Wolf reappears and threatens to reveal Jamal’s murder secret. Wolf, who is obsessed with the old crime, suddenly dies while staying at Ajita’s house. Jamal talks with Ajita about the death and their shared past.

Ajita forgives Jamal for his part in the event. She also confesses that she had secretly wished her abusive father would die. Jamal resolves to focus on being a good father to Rafi. He decides to concentrate on his work and write a book about guilt and conscience, seeking to understand his difficult life fully.

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