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

[Newby]

I've been no use at all this year (my partner and I are undergoing IVF at the moment). Good work, Y'all. As for Mr Barry Jones (to whom you were all unnecessarily polite, I feel ), hippie-ish as it might be, I would refer him to Bob Dylan: "Something is happening here and you don't know what it is. Do you, Mr Jones?" I have a life around here somewhere if you would care for it.

[Razor Boy]

"The cello and the violin are part of the same family."

Do you really think the question would ask about a violinist when the character is a cellist?! I think not. And I think the Larry McMurtry novel is probably a dead end.

[phoenixxx]

I agree - the questions may be obscure at times but they are not deliberately misleading. If they had meant cellist I'm sure that's what would have been written.
Having said that I still have no idea what it might be!

[UMYC175]

Who helps a violinist give birth during a snowstorm?

Has anyone read 'The Birth House� by Ami McKay? Intriguingly she is reported as saying the birth of her own son during a sudden snowstorm helped spark the novel

[Gortnalibert]

A blog on "Violin and Classical Music Novels" offers a few new leads: http://www.violinist.com/blog/Terez/20072/6568 /

[Gortnalibert]

...and another: http://www.violinist.com/blog/Terez/20077/7342 /

[UMYC175]

Who helps a violinist give birth during a snowstorm?

There is definitely a violinist somewhere in Dr Zhivago her name (or his I�m not sure) is Tiskevich. Tiskevich gets a mention in chapter 4 or 5

[mycastam]

Tishkevich is male, unfortunately: (Chapter 2:20):
"At the end of the first part...(he) told Tishkevich that he was needed at home."

Another, probably off-the-wall, suggestion:
A gift to last by Debbie Macomber (only from what I've Googled - has anyone got access to the book?)

[phoenixxx]

I think we can now lay Zhivago to rest - I have skimmed it today and can find nothing to tie in with the question.

[mycastam]

Births 3. Thought I'd found it, but another dead end unfortunately. Mary Higgins Clark, All Through The Night, reported for elimination purposes only. Sondra Lewis is the character who had a baby and was definitely a violinist - epilogue: "Two nights later, on December 23rd......and would be the New York debut for the brilliant young violinist Sondra Lewis." But the birth was alone in a hotel room Chapter 4: "but the baby had come so quickly on December 3rd; there had been no time to get to the hospital"; and no sign of a snowstorm. Chapter 16: "It was very cold that night (of the birth), she remembered, and the snow on the sides of the street was icy"

[Bonnin]

Births 3. Two suggestions - Has anyone read Sun at Midnight by Rosie Thomas? James Rooker deliver's Alice Peel's baby in a blizzard in the middle of a helicopter trip between Antarctica and South America. Problem is she is a geologist - -I am trying to find anywhere in the book where she might just have played the violin as a hobby perhaps (as you do!).

Other suggestion. The competition usually has a Thomas Hardy question, but unless I have missed it, there does'nt seem to be one this year. Could it be in one of his books?

from Bonnin

[kenpilot]

Another possible red herring. What about Robertson Davies - the Cornish Trilogy. I can't get hold of copies, but it is possible that there is a reference in Rebel angels to Maria playing the violin as her mother is a violin restorer. In the third book, Lyre of Orpheus, she has a baby in Toronto, whether or not this was in a snowstorm I can't discover. Does anyone have access to these to check ? I've tried Hardy, not exhaustively, but couldn't find any female violinists giving birth.

[Razor Boy]

Maria's not a violinist and the birth (which is only obliquely mentioned) isn't in a snowstorm.

Although it's not (that) Robertson Davies, I was also thinking of Canadian authors - Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, etc. Or what about E. Annie Proulx? Isn't a lot of her fiction set in the frozen north? Or could it be some madcap episode from someone like Pynchon, Bellow, Heller, DeLillo, ... (although it doesn't ring any bells)?

I also skimmed The Birth House (very quickly) and couldn't find anything - anyone looked at it more carefully?

[LG123]

D H Lawrence's novel The Trespasser is about an affair between a woman and her Violin teacher - does anyone know more about this book?

[Munden]

You can read an eversion here http://www.online-literature.com/booksearch.ph p and search the whole book. I've not found anything which links it to the question I'm afraid.

[UMYC175]

Regarding the stubborn violinist birth in the snow question.

Please find publisher comments The Magi at Christmas by - W Kroeker

�Emotionally exhausted from a divorce and years of hard work, middle-aged Californian Erik Leiden arrives in his beloved Bavaria, southern Germany, to spend a relaxing Christmas. A blinding snowstorm surprises him on his way from the airport to the hotel, just when he seeks to help a distressed and penniless young woman. Expecting her first child, Jenny Heilman is single and, at 24, a generation apart. The two end up finding refuge in the Drei K�nige inn where, at Christmas Eve, events take a dramatic turn, radically changing the course of three lives.�

Have not been able to find out more and as time is running out will probably submit this as answer but for the sake of completeness would appreciate it if anyone can shed further light

[Razor Boy]

For the simple reason that it's completely obscure, sounds pretty trashy, and is unlikely to appear in a Times quiz, I don't think it's even worth trying to check this Groeker thing further. Just look at the other answers: not a single author I haven't heard of, and, apart from the crime fiction perhaps, nothing that couldn't at a push be classed as 'literary'.

Have earlier posters here abandoned the hunt, or have they found the solution and decided to hold out on us ...?

[UMYC175]

Well that's me told

[mycastam]

My local library has come back with a "don't know" but suggests I post to:

www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk and follow the links to Enquire. This is an online Enquiry Service staffed by librarians all over the country and all over the world.

Still worth trying this, but as you know, we are quickly running out of time.

[Razor Boy]

No offence intended, UMYC175. I just didn't think anyone should spend time on it at the expense of some other line of enquiry.