Sunday Times/Faber Literary Quiz

[phoenixxx]

Are we all ready? At first glance it looks a stinker! Blondes 4: Bruce Gold? Drinks 3 is Alice Picture 1 is Michael Palin

[mycastam]

Suggestion for Births 1(haven't checked it out yet)
found at:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-16328152.h tml
suggests that:
"Gorky's remarkable memoir are made uncomfortably intimate ... The opening scene, with its rude life-and-death juxtaposition of a father's corpse and a mother in labor"
Will be looking at it more closely, but would appreciate confirmation/views?

[phoenixxx]

Well done mycastam, I think you may be right. I was fixed on the notion that I was looking for a fictional writer. Thank you. Only need to worry away at violinist in a snowstorm now!

[monaghan]

Fantastic - Gorky seems to fit the bill from what I have now searched- will try and get hold of a library copy of Childhood - if no one has one on their book shelf. The violinist one looks straightforward yet we are stumped! I have thought of alternatives for violin and snow- ie fiddle and blizzard but no luck and tried thinking of an author to fit the bill. No Dickens or Hardy this year.? I even thought along fairy tales - ie Hans Andersen. Any ideas on chinese or russian novels - rather more violinists and snow than the UK I believe.

[mycastam]

Births 3.
I, too, have google'd, dogpile'd etc until my eyes are wonky; with check on blizzards, snow, fiddles etc.
Some ideas - but cannot lay my hands on (sufficient) internet texts, so will need a visit to the library at some stage!
Ideas are: Elizabeth Mansfield, Bulgakov (Notes of a Young Doctor), John Lawrence Peterson (The Littles to the Rescue), Grace Cheval, Jane Abbott (Red Robin)
If anyone else can check...
Notice someone has posted on a violin site. No joy as yet.
I've tried asking the Internet Public Library, but they refused the question due to too much traffic.

[mycastam]

Births 3.
Sorry, and another to check: George Rodenbach (La Vocation) - could only find some of his other titles on-line in French so far.

[michealk]

just to confirm i have checked maxim gorky and this is written in his autobiography my childhood. i am trying really hard on violinists in snowstorms but cannot get anywhere yet.
will let you know as soon as i can. we will finish this.

[LG123]

Just another vague idea - The Whirlpool by George Gissing, which does involve a female Violinist, but I don't know any more than that about it yet...

[mycastam]

Birth 3. Definitely not Red-Robin as the text is on Gutenberg.org, as are 39 other texts with an advanced search of birth violinist snowstorm. None of these yielded a correct answer.
Also, should be Georges, not George Rodenbach, sorry.

[michealk]

i dont think george gissings whirlpool as have gone crosseyed reading it but doesnt seem right.

[yellow11]

what about doctor zhivago?

[phoenixxx]

There was certainly a balalaika in Doctor Zhivago but I don't remember a violinist.

[untappedatom]

Can you let me know which answers you are still missing and I can post any I have - I have tried to go through all of the thread but there seem to be more not mentioned on here than people post still needing!

I amlooking for departures 4 today - In which 1930s novel are holidaymakers unable to depart from a railway station because of fog?

Hi everyone btw - sorryto join so late and not be able to contribute up till now - just had a baby and only just got my head above water! Enjoying the quiz as it is forcing me to think about something else other than nappies, vomit and the unmentionable!

[phoenixxx]

Departures 4 is Party Going. If you read through the responses you will find all the questions answered except Births 3 - Who helps a violinist give birth during a snowstorm? All thoughts and contributions will be eagerly checked!

[untappedatom]

I am struggling with this, but have been having better luck finding possibilities using 'blizzard' as a search term rather than snowstorm - mainly coming up with children's stories which I feel do not quite fit the requirement of the quiz - very frustrating!

[falconer99]

Reference the female violinist, is "A Prior Engagement" by Elizabeth Mansfield any good? I have tried to check all elements, but without success.

[LG123]

I've just been reading about a book called Gael by Judith Mok, which involves a female Violinist character; I know she has a child but can't find any more info at the moment - has anyone else heard of it?

[phoenixxx]

Having looked for blizzard and birth I came across 'Midwives' by Chris Bohjalian. Does anyone know this?

[untappedatom]

I haven't read it, but I seem to remember it was an Oprah's book choice a while ago.
I had a quick search and it seems that the midwife character performs a caesarian on a mother to deliver a baby in a blizzard - it doesn't say anything about the mother being a violinist, and it looks like she performed the caesarian thinking the mother was dead.
I don't think this is a hopeful direction sadly. :(

[Razor Boy]

I really don't think Elizabeth Mansfield is going to feature in the quiz, given that she writes trashy romance novels and we've got the likes of Henry Green and Conrad in there. But this doesn't mean to say I have a clue. I skimmed Vikram Seth's An Equal Music today to no avail.

[mycastam]

Have tried the librarians at my local library (to no avail). Am now ploughing through Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters (hope to finish over the weekend). Foolishly picked up The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield - but will check through this one anyway. There's no reason why it all has to be highbrow - I suspect itsbecause it isn't, this is why we are all finding it so difficult to track our final answer down. Perhaps its a more modern sci-fi?