Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 360537 times)

Frybabe

  • Posts: 10032
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3120 on: September 10, 2012, 08:33:14 AM »
 


Welcome to Author! Author!  

This is a game in which the contestants match their wits with a  challenger, who suggests a character in literature, non- fiction or fiction. The challenger may or may not provide more clues, his prerogative,, and never more than one a day.


Once a day the challenger will say if the guesses are correct or not. The winning contestant gets lots of acclaim and the chance to pose the next challenge. If he does not want to post a new challenge he can say so and whoever does can begin a new game.

Of course you could look these up on google in an instant, what challenge is that? The  idea is to rack one's brain to try to remember where this particular character appeared and who wrote about him/ her. Should be great fun.

The challenger also has the option not to mention the name of the character, but only a description.


Authors used so far:

Author, Book, Character, Challenger, Post#, winner

Anonymous, Beowulf, Beowulf, PatH, #1301
Arlen, Michael, The Green Hat, straudetwo, #2711, roshanarose
Atwood, Margaret, The Blind Assassin, Gumtree, #277
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennett, #158
Baden-Powell, Robert, Scouting for Boys, Frybabe, #2847, rosemarykaye
Banks, Lynn Reid, The L-Shaped Room, Jane Graham, Rosemarykaye, #1785, unguessed
Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, JoanK, #342
Bennett, Alan, Uncommon Reader, Queen Elizabeth II, rosemarykaye, #1605, pedln
Blackmore, Richard, Lorna Doone, Lorna Doone, Frybabe, #462
Boswell, James, Life of Johnson, Samuel Johnson, Frybabe, #2755, PatH
Brittain, Vera, Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain, rosemarykaye, #3091, Frybabe
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, Gumtree, #252
Buchan, John, 39 steps, Richard Hannay, PatH, #396
Burns, Olive, Cold Sassy Tree, pedln, #1594, rosemarykaye
Carroll, Louis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice, JoanK, # 426
Cervantes, Don Quijote, Don Quijote, PatH, #701
Chesterton, Gilbert K., The Father Brown books, Father Brown, PatH, #2179, JoanK
Child, Julia, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, butter, PatH, #2546, pedln
Christie, Agatha, Hastings, JoanK, # 127
Christie, Agatha, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot, JoanK, #752
Clancy, Tom, Hunt for Red October, Frybabe, #553
Clarke, Arthur C., Rendezvous with Rama, roshanarose, #2064
Clemens, Samuel, see Twain, Mark
Coetzee, J. M., Disgrace, David Little, Straudetwo, #1336
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Connolly, John, The Book of Lost Things, roshanarose, #2746, Frybabe
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Conroy, Pat, The Great Santini, Conroy's father, JudeS #1319
Costain, Thomas, The Silver Chalice, Basil, Frybabe, #3123, JudeS
Cronin, A. J., The Citadel, Andrew Manson, JudeS, #1085
Davies, Robertson, The Cunning Man, Jonathan Hullah,  straudetwo, #1382
Dickens, Charles, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Drood, PatH, #2227, rosemarykaye, #2283, Gumtree
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment, Roskolnikov, JudeS, #1209, 1213
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson, PatH, #380
Dumas, Alexandre pere, The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan, PatH, #939, 941
DuMaurier, Daphne, Rebecca, the nameless narrator, Gumtree, straudetwo and rosemarykaye, #1924
Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda, Gumtree, #190
Eliot, T. S., Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Bustopher Jones, PatH, #110
Essex, Karen, Leonardo's Swans, Isabella d'Este, Mippy, #591
Faulkner, William, The Sound and the Fury, Caddy, 1429, 1439, Frybabe
Flaubert, Gustave, Madame Bovary, Frybabe, #2607, rosemarykaye
Forster, E. M., Passage to India, Frybabe, #2240, rosemarykaye
Fowles, John, The Collector, Frederick and Miranda, roshanarose, #2903, JudeS
Frankel, Bruce, What Shall I Do with the Rest of My Life? Frybabe, #2825, PatH
Galsworthy, John, The Forsyte Saga, Irene, PatH, #615,620
George, Elizabeth, Lynley and Havers, Tomereader1, #168
Gibbon, Edward, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Zenobia, Frybabe, roshanarose, #2003, 2011
Gilbert, W. S., The Savoy Operas, Frederick, or the Pirate King, #1108, 1111, 1112
Golding, William, Lord of the Flies, JudeS, #3139, straudetwo
Goodall, Jane, In the Shadow of Man, Flo, JoanK, #2815, Frybabe
Goodman, Carol, The Night Villa, the slave girl, Gumtree, # 1165
Grahame, Kenneth, The Wind in the Willows, Mr. Toad, rosemarykaye, #3362, PatH
Greene, Graham, The Third Man, Holly Martins, PatH, ##1175, 1179
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Hamill, Pete, Tabloid City, pedln, #2662, straudetwo
Hardy, Thomas, Far From the Madding Crowd, roshanarose, #1741, rosemarykaye
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingsworth, Frybabe, 2368, 2373, pedln
Henry, O., Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  #537
Hesse, Herman, The Glass Bead Game, straudetwo, Frybabe, #1962
Heyerdahl, Thor, Early Man and the Ocean, Frybabe, #3035, 3044, PatH
Hugo, Victor, Les Miserables, JoanK, # 1904, Gumtree
Hugo, Victor, Les Miserables, straudetwo, #2698, rosemarykaye
Irving, John, The World According to Garp, pedln, #2401, straudetwo
James, Henry, Washington Square, straudetwo, #981, 982
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Jenkins, Peter, A Walk Across America, Frybabe, #2641, pedln
Johnston, George, My Brother Jack, Gumtree, #2311, roshanarose
Keller, Helen, The Story of my Life, Anne Sullivan, JoanK #958
Kingsolver, Barbara, The Poisonwood Bible, pedln, #2581, rosemarykaye
Kipling, Rudyard, Kim, the lama PatH, #3023, JudeS
Knowles, John, A Separate Peace, pedln, #2560, Frybabe
Lagerlof, Selma, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Nils Holgersson, JudeS #899
Lahiri, Jhumpa, The Namesake, the boy, Frybabe, #4110, pedln
Lamb, Charles and Mary, Tales From Shakespeare, Macbeth, JoanK, #1301
Lampedusa, Giuseppe di, The Leopard, Don Fabrizio, Gumtree, Frybabe and straudetwo, #2031, 2032
Larson, Erik, Devil in the White City, pedln, #2226, Frybabe
LeCarre, John, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Smiley, rosemarykaye, #2591, Frybabe
LeFanu, Sheridan, Carmilla, roshanarose, #769
Lessing, Doris, The Grass is Singing, straudetwo, #2432, Frybabe
Li, Cunxin, Mao's Last Dancer, Li Cunxin, Gumtree, #1713, roshanarose
Lofting, Hugh, Dr. Doolittle, Dr. Doolittle, rosemarykaye, #2875, roshanarose
Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizon, Laurie, rosemarykaye, #2494, straudetwo
Mann, Thomas,Joseph and his Brothers, JudeS, #2934, straudetwo
Maupin, Armistead, Tales of the City, rosemarykaye, #1553, pedln
McCourt, Frank, Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt, JoanK, #1062
McCullers, Carson, Member of the Wedding, straudetwo, pedln, #1859
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, the whale, PatH, #482
Miller,Arthur, Death of a Salesman, Gumtree, #1005, 1006
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Frybabe, #413
Mitford, Nancy, roshanarose, #839, 840
Murdoch, Iris, The Sea, the Sea, Charles Arrowby, straudetwo, #1197, 1198
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lolita, Lolita, JudeS, #1124
O’Brian, Patrick, Master and Commander, Jack Aubrey, JudeS, #319
Oe, Kenzaburo, The Changeling, Frybabe, #2998-9, PatH, JudeS
Orwell, George, Frybabe, #97
Ovid, Metamorphosis, Frybabe, roshanarose, #1985
Parker, Dorothy, Big Blonde, straudetwo, #2505, rosemarykaye
Pearl, Matthew, The Dante Club, pedln, #1629, deems 2
Perry, Anne, Acceptable Loss, William Monk, #3010, PatH
Peterson, Roger Tory, Field guide to the Eastern Birds, Mockingbird, JoanK #202
Potok, Chaim, The Chosen, Danny Saunders, pedln, #1890, JoanK
Potter, Beatrix, Jemima Puddleduck, rosemarykaye, #1478 pedln, #1482 deems2
Plutarch, ----, Themistocles, roshanarose, #1025, 1027
Preston, Douglas, Dinosaurs in the attic, Frybabe, #1456 rosemarykaye
Rand, Ayn, We the Living, Frybabe, #498, 502
Rowling, J. K, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry, PatH, #1409
Rhys, Jean, Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane Eyre, straudetwo, #1230
Sagan, Carl, Contact, Eleanor Alloway, Frybabe,#2447, PatH
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de, The Little Prince, the Prince, PatH, #2146, rosemarykaye
Saramago, Jose, Blindness, deems 2, #1652, straudetwo
Sayers, Dorothy L., The Nine Tailors, Lord Peter Wimsey, PatH, #2466, rosemarykaye
Scott, Paul, The Jewel in the Crown, Daphne Manners, rosemarykaye, #2622, Frybabe
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
Sewall, Anna, Black Beauty, Frybabe, #1490, Gumtree
Shakespeare, William, Othello, Othello, PatH, #2353, Frybabe, #2355, rosemarykaye
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, the monster, PatH, #451
Smith, Alexander McCall, Mma Ramotswe, JudeS, #145
Smith, Alexander McCall, 44Scotland Street, Cyril, rosemarykaye, #1238, 1243
Spark, Muriel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Brodie, Gumtree, #671, 672
Stead, Christina, The Man Who Loved Children, straudetwo, #1690, Gumtree
Steinbeck , John, Journal of a Novel, Gumtree, #53, 60
Stevenson, Robert Louis, The strange case of Dr. Jeckell and Mr. Hyde, Mr. Utterson, rosemarykaye, #2984, Frybabe
Stoker, Bram, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, JudeS, #631, 632
Stone, Irving, Depths of Glory, Camille Pisarro, Gumtree, #802
Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver's Travels, Lemuel Gulliver, PatH, #2835, Frybabe
Thompson, Morton, The Cry and the Covenant, Ignaz Semmelweiss, #2332, PatH, #2338, straudetwo
Tolkien, J. R. R., Lord of the Rings, Frodo, PatH, #238, 241
Tolstoy, Leo, War and Peace, Pierre Bezukhov, PatH, #1267
Trollope, Joanna, The Best of Friends, Sophie, Mippy, #218
Tuchman, Barbara, A Distant Mirror, Frybabe, #2117, straudetwo, #2118, PatH
Twain, Mark, Life on the Mississippi, the author, JoanK, #2192, Frybabe
Tyler, Anne, Digging to America, Maryam Yazdan,Mippy, #735
Urrea, Luis Alberto, The Hummingbird's Daughter, Saint Teresa de Cabora, Frybabe, #1835, straudetwo
Van Allsburg, The Polar Express, Santa, Frybabe, #2570, pedln
Voltaire, Candide, Candide, straudetwo, #1809, Frybabe
Vreeland, Susan, The Forest Lover, Emily Carr, Mippy, #364
Weir, Alison, Innocent Traitor, Lady Jane Gray, roshanrose, #883
Wethers, Beck, Left for Dead, Ginny, #29
Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence, Frybabe, rosemarykaye, #2054, Gumtree #2055
White, T. H., The Sword in the Stone, Arthur (the Wart), #3069, rosemarykaye.
Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell, #2131, rosemarykaye
Windsor, Kathleen, Forever Amber, Amber, Traude, #927, 928
Wodehouse, P. G., Bertie Wooster, PatH, #1046, 1048
Wolfe, Tom, The Right Stuff, Chuck Yeager, roshanarose, #2091 Gumtree, #209x Frybabe
Woolf, Virginia, Flush, Gumtree, #1511, 1513, rosemarykaye
Woolf, Virginia, Orlando, Orlando, PatH, #1141
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173
Zola, Emile, Germinal, Etienne Lentier, Gumtree, #1352


Only the latest heading is up to date.



















Googling is fine with me. I was so surprised to find so many movie reviews, but very little about the book itself. I didn't trust the movie plot because, as we all know, movie people have a tendency to bend and change them, sometimes a lot.

Sorry that it has given everyone such a hard time. I actually thought it was going to be too easy. Oh, well.

Someone want to jump in and actually name the book and author?

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3121 on: September 10, 2012, 08:36:24 AM »
Straude - over to you!  I really cheated in finding it - at least you had heard of it - & also I am not going to have time to think of a new quiz for a couple of weeks.

Rosemary

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3122 on: September 10, 2012, 09:57:12 AM »
That loud sound you hear is me kicking myself.  As soon as I looked up the New York Times bestsellers of 1952, it leaped out at me.  Why I didn't get it with your glaring clues, I don't know.

OK, which of us gives the name and takes the next turn?

JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3123 on: September 10, 2012, 02:14:36 PM »
I never heard of the author or his book or the movie.
However, after following the same leads as others, I immediately found it.

Since the last time I disappeared into the windings of my real life it was my turn to make a puzzle I will do it now.
The author is Thomas Costain
The book is The Silver Chalice

I promise to make it as easy as possible after the shock of "not knowing" the last book is conquered by the participants of this quiz.
Just give me a day or two to choose the author and make the clues.


JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3124 on: September 10, 2012, 02:19:20 PM »
Oh yes, the Hero is named Basil.
This is a strange name for those times.

My association with that name is Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers.

Frybabe

  • Posts: 10032
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3125 on: September 10, 2012, 03:24:52 PM »
Paul Newman was roundly panned for his role as Basil.


Almost forgot. The inspiration for the book came from the Antioch Chalice, housed in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/50.4

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3126 on: September 10, 2012, 04:09:09 PM »
Oh, for me Basil leads straight to Basil Brush  ;D

Rosemary


Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3127 on: September 10, 2012, 06:57:51 PM »
Who?


PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3129 on: September 11, 2012, 08:12:17 AM »
Too bad Basil Brush never got across the Atlantic; he looks amusing.  I don't associate anyone in particular with the name--maybe Basil Rathbone.

JudeS, many thanks for taking the next turn.

I'm embarrassed that I didn't think of The Silver Chalice without looking it up.  I haven't read it (though I read other books by Costain) but I knew of it, and what the plot was.  And one of the books I thought of and rejected was The Robe, which came out about the same time.

Frybabe

  • Posts: 10032
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3130 on: September 11, 2012, 08:20:39 AM »
I remember Reginald Rabbit and Marmaduke Mouse from books my relatives sent over for Christmas, but never heard of Basil Brush. I guess he came much later.

Who played in The Robe? Was it Victor Mature or Kirk Douglas? I vaguely remember clips of both movies, but not sure I ever watched them the whole way through. Haven't read either book. After a hiatus of over 50 years I can finally get back to reading The Silver Chalice. I'll have to start over though.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3131 on: September 11, 2012, 10:34:35 AM »
The only movie of a Costain book I saw was The Black Rose, but I see from imdb, that it was Victor Mature in The Robe.  It's a star-studded cast--Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Michael Rennie are also in it.  (Rennie isn't that well known, but I liked him a lot in The Day the Earth Stood Still.)  The Silver Chalice is pretty star-studded too: Virginia Mayo, Jack Palance, Paul Newman, Alexander Scourby, and Natalie Wood.

JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3132 on: September 11, 2012, 12:01:03 PM »
Ready-Set-Go!

Author: Won Booker and Nobel Prizes. Was knighted by the Queen.

Book: Translated into 35 languages.

Character:Not a Hero but rather a protagonist as opposed to the antagonist.

straudetwo

  • Posts: 1597
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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3133 on: September 11, 2012, 10:47:09 PM »
Jude,

Is it V.S. Naipul, Sir Vidia ?

JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3134 on: September 12, 2012, 12:56:46 AM »
Sorry Straude,
Not Naipul.
Keep Guessing. Another clue tomorrow.

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3135 on: September 12, 2012, 02:31:22 AM »
Gosh, that's just what I thought.  Back to the drawing board....

Rosemary

Frybabe

  • Posts: 10032
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3136 on: September 12, 2012, 08:16:32 AM »
Yes, more clues, more clues if you please. My thinking cap is not on straight this morning. Maybe I'll have more time to think this afternoon.

JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3137 on: September 12, 2012, 11:57:24 AM »
OK. Here are the  clues for today. I promise that if all is not revealed by today's clues, tomorrow will open it up.
(At least I think so.)

Author:
1) Won Booker and Nobel Prizes. Knighted by the Queen.
2) Married to a Chemist. They had two children.

Book:
1)Translated into 35 languages.
2) A must on many H.S. Reading Lists in the US & Europe.

Character:
1)Not a Hero but a protagonist as opposed to the antagonist.
2)His sidekick is better known than he.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3138 on: September 12, 2012, 01:10:41 PM »
Aaaak!  Why can't I come up with it; it's got to be something I know.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3139 on: September 12, 2012, 10:18:43 PM »

How about William Golding for Lord of the Flies ?

JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3140 on: September 12, 2012, 11:51:20 PM »
Haha!

Promised you an easy one and we have a WINNER on the second day!
Yes Straude it is indeed William Golding for Lord of the Flies.

Do anone of you remember the lad who stood for the morally correct way of doing things?
His sidekick was Piggy, who of course, dies.

Golding cane from a Cornwall English family where his Father was a scientific rationalist and his Mother a suffragette. William was   born in 1911.
Although he started out studying Science he switched to English Lit.
He served in the Royal Navy in WW2. He took part in the Invasion of Normandy.
After the war he was writing in many genres and in 1954 published "Lord of the Flies".
All of his novels are allegorical fiction set in closed communities.
He has written much on the primordial instincts of power and cruelty.
In Lord of the Flies there is a boy who is neither moral or immoral but symbolized the ability to be truly kind and good. Yhat is Simon who Fielding saw as the hope for humanity.

Hope you enjoyed this short quick quiz.
Straud -your turn now.


rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3141 on: September 13, 2012, 03:24:56 AM »
Well done Straude, and thanks for setting the quiz, Jude - I hadn't got a clue!

Here is an interesting article about Golding from the point of view of his daughter, Judy Carver:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/11/william-golding-crisis

I remember that Lord of the Flies was a set book when I was at school.  I never got beyond the first chapter - loathed it.  I did later read The Spire, but didn't much like that either.  I do think that becoming a 'set book' is often the kiss of death to a novel - my daughters have great aversion to certain writers because they have been force fed them at school, and sometimes I really do sympathise - you feel that the book is only being pushed because the school has got a good supply of copies.  'I am David', for example, was a set book when I was at school - and apparently it still is.  I'm not saying it's a bad book, but children hate anything that adults think is 'good for' them.

Rosemary

straudetwo

  • Posts: 1597
  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3142 on: September 14, 2012, 10:29:56 AM »
Thank you, Jude and Rosemary.  Thank you for the enjoyable quiz, Jude.
of
Special thanks to Rosemary for the link to the article on Golding's shock and lasting unhappiness over the harsh critique of his third novel, The Spire, in a radio program that quickly turned into a disgraceful wrangle between opposing reviewers - clearly not their finest hour.  Not only were were moderation and civility sadly lacking, but a quote by an American reviewer of a different book cited in error. It was a monumental blow for a sensitive writer.

Once I have PatH's official go-ahead, I will proceed.
Traude

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3143 on: September 14, 2012, 10:45:44 AM »
Great quiz. It is not one that I had to read in school.

JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3144 on: September 14, 2012, 01:01:30 PM »
No one came up with the name of the Protagonist. It was Ralph.

Frybabe
you didn't have to read Lord of the Flies
 in High School unless you went to HS in the 1970s and\or the years following.

Also I guess it would depend on where you went to HS.
My daughter had to read it in her Israeli HS in the late 1970s as did some relatives in San Francisco and NY
High Schools.It continues to be a much read teen classic.

It is one of those books that stays with you foreve,r once you have read it.





Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3145 on: September 14, 2012, 01:32:41 PM »
That might explain it. When I was in high school the college prep kids had to read Catcher in the Rye. In my first semester of college, I was forced to read Light in August.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3146 on: September 14, 2012, 05:31:37 PM »
Traude, good job.  You don't need my go-ahead, since Judy said you are the winner, but please feel free to go ahead. :)

straudetwo

  • Posts: 1597
  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3147 on: September 23, 2012, 07:16:02 PM »
Thank you, PatH. 
Here is the new quiz. I was working  on several "candidates" and regret the delay.

           
Author             Writer, lecturer,  member of a family of writers

Book               Author's debut novel, a stunning success
     
Characters      Live by different standards and values, which bodes ill for their conflict

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3148 on: September 23, 2012, 11:02:46 PM »
This looks promising.  I'll have to think.

straudetwo

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  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3149 on: September 24, 2012, 08:43:47 PM »

The first clues of any quiz are often nebulous, but not to worry.   More clues will follow tomorrow.

 It's the day of my eye checkup,  a procedure that is dreaded because of the pupil-dilating drops and the glaring lights.
But my appointment is in the morning, and by afternoon the effects  should have worn off.  Will be back.

straudetwo

  • Posts: 1597
  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3150 on: September 25, 2012, 09:43:51 PM »
New clues

Author      is A writer, lecturer,  member of a large family of writers
                       He was given numerous  honors and awards for this heartbreaking story

Book           Author's   debut novel and a stunningas  success
                     Though a contemporary story, it is in fact as ageless as a Greek tragedy
                     It has elicited strong emotions from readers, but not only empathy with the characters' plight

Characters    Live by different standards and values which does not bode well for their conflict
                   The opponents have tenacity in common, but little else. One tries valiantly to fight the good fight and has the law on his
                   side and his honor and dignity to protect.  The other seeks desperately to regain something lost due to neglect and                          irresponsibility, and  then blithely compounding both.

                  
                  

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3151 on: September 26, 2012, 08:10:38 AM »
Stephen King comes to mind, but Carrie does not fit the book profile. Still thinking.

JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3152 on: September 26, 2012, 04:23:55 PM »
Can we get country of origin or at leasrt a hint of the writer's language?

straudetwo

  • Posts: 1597
  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3153 on: September 26, 2012, 06:50:06 PM »
Sorry Frybabe, not Stephen King.

Jude,  the country of origin is the U.S.

New clues.
The story is set in Northern California in the nineteen nineties
Four years after its publication,  the novel was made into an award-winning movie.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3154 on: September 27, 2012, 03:49:49 PM »
 ???

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3155 on: September 27, 2012, 05:57:50 PM »
Just to say, I am here and reading all the clues, but so far I haven't got a dickey bird, as they used to say  :)

Rosemary

straudetwo

  • Posts: 1597
  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3156 on: September 27, 2012, 08:28:41 PM »
Unfortunately this seems to be one of the books one has to have rea, or hard about.
In fact, I was sure we discussed it this forum, and I actually recall participating in the discussion. To my chagrin the book is not listed in the Archives of fiction read prior to 2007.
I would like to ask Ginny Anderson whether she remembers the book an the discussion, but first I need to apologize to you and specially Rosemary. I don't know whether the book was popular in the UK.

Here are new clues:
The book was an Oprah book club choice and a finalist for the National Book Award.
The die is cast early on in the story which catapults mercilessly  to a deeply sad, traumatic ending, one that was muted and transformed by the director of the movie, al though retaining the overall impat.
The protagonist for whom readers tended to root was a naturalized citizen, seeking refuge in this country from his war-torn nation.
.

Traude




Frybabe

  • Posts: 10032
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3157 on: September 27, 2012, 08:34:08 PM »
Not ringing any bells for me yet.

PatH

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 10954
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3158 on: September 27, 2012, 09:04:31 PM »
It's not ringing any bells for me yet either, but it's early days.

Traude, there is no reason to apologize for a book that no one seems to have heard about.  It has happened before.  If no one gets it, we learn something, and that's part of the appeal of this contest.  From your clues, it's not an obscure book.

Unfortunately, our archives aren't complete, we weren't able to rescue everything.

JudeS

  • Posts: 1162
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #3159 on: September 27, 2012, 11:17:48 PM »
Thomas Pynchon wrote a book about N. CA. called " Vineland"

However I have not read this book or anything else this writer wrote.

Iis this the person you are looking for?