Narrative
They're a Weird Mob
Nino Culotta · 1957
Synopsis
Giovanni Culotta, known as Nino, a journalist employed by an Italian publishing house, arrives in Sydney to write about Australian life for Italians who are thinking of emigrating. He thought he spoke English, but he learned it from textbooks and understands almost nothing of the workmen's language. To learn how Australians speak, he becomes a labourer under the bricklayer Joe Kennedy and discovers the custom of the round. In a café in Manly, he sets about teaching a young woman, Kay, not to eat spaghetti with a spoon.
Context
Turned down by Angus and Robertson, the manuscript appeared in November 1957 from Ure Smith, in six thousand hardback copies, under the narrator's name; it is said to have originated in a ten-pound bet between the author and his brother, the novelist Frank O'Grady. Requests for interviews were declined, and the author's identity was revealed about two months after publication. More than a hundred and thirty thousand copies were sold in the first year. Adapted for radio in 1958, it was brought to the screen in 1966 by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, with Walter Chiari.
Who it is for
A comic narrative in English, whose effect rests almost entirely on the spoken language of Sydney workmen; no French translation.
Prizes and reception
Nearly a million copies at the author's death (some 930,000 according to the ADB).
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