Skip to main content

The Sundowners by Jon Cleary: book review


 


The Sundowners (1953) is set in rural Australia in the 1920s. In 1960,  the movie was released starring Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Chips Rafferty, and Peter Ustinov.

 

Paddy Carmody is an itinerant sheep shearer and drover, wandering from town to town to find work – he likes the newness of each town. He doesn’t care that the towns are not on any map. It seems to him that the whole countryside is his own backyard. ‘All he wanted was Ida and the boy, and to keep moving’ – and to keep pitching a tent when the sun goes down.

 

His wife Ida, and their 14-year old son, Sean, are tired of the nomadic life. At first it was different, exciting, but now they want to settle down. Make a home, make a life. Ida left England 30 years ago – the last place she called home. Ida and Sean strike up a friendship, and communicate through letters, with Mac, who owns a farm that they like. Of course, they can’t afford to buy it, but it’s nice to have a dream.

 

The work is hard in the Australian outback – with wild fires, storms, and danger – but it is also rewarding, thanks to the many interesting characters they meet along the way. 

 

Nevertheless, Sean is growing up, and wants more in life. More books. He wants more company too, not merely that of his parents, property owners, and itinerant workers. 

 

The Carmody’s are battlers, and Paddy is the eternal optimist against all odds. It is Ida and Sean that keep the family as stable as they can; a ballast against the irresponsible Paddy. 

 

Although dated now, the story was initially ground-breaking at the time, telling a tale of the hard life and hard luck of an itinerant family, almost as it really was, without too much gloss and romanticism. There’s still something about this book that makes me want to read it again from time to time. 














 

 

 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

 

MARTINA NICOLLS

MartinaNicollsWebsite

 

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

Flower Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 


MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more