''The Sundowners'' is a 1952 novel by Australian writer

Jon Cleary Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 191719 July 2010) was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including '' The Sundowners'' (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and '' The ...

Plot

The story is set in the Australian

Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

during the 1920s and deals with one year in the life of the Carmody family. Paddy Carmody, Australian-born son of

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

migrants, is an itinerant worker, travelling the country with his wife Ida and son Sean in a horse-drawn wagon. Whilst Ida longs to settle in a place of their own, Paddy is unwilling to abandon his way of life and continues to pick up work where he can. He takes cattle-droving jobs and also sheep-shearing – which he doesn't like, but pays well. At one point, he joins a

shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...

team with Sean as tarboy and Ida as the shearers'

cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

. They meet various colourful outback characters, ranging from prosperous graziers to drunks, including Rupert Venneker, a well-educated Englishman in self-imposed exile. Along the way Sean develops from boy into young man, Venneker marries and settles in a small town, and the Carmodys continue on their way.

Background

The book was based on stories Cleary had been told by his father, who ran away to Queensland when he was a teenager. Additional research was provided by C. E. W. Bean's ''On the Wool Track''. Cleary wrote the novel in long-hand during the evenings after work while he was living in New York working as a journalist, with the manuscript typed out by his wife Joy.Jon Cleary Interviewed by Stephen Vagg: Oral History
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National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

Adaptations

The novel was a great success, eventually selling over three million copies, and was well reviewed overseas. It was his second book to be published in the USA. It was adapted for Australian radio in 1953 (with

Rod Taylor Rodney Sturt Taylor (11 January 1930 – 7 January 2015) was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including ''The Time Machine'' (1960), ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1961), '' The Birds'' (1963), and ''In ...

playing Paddy), and film rights were purchased by the American producer Joseph Kaufman, then in Australia to make ''

Long John Silver Long John Silver is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the novel ''Treasure Island'' (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson. The most colourful and complex character in the book, he continues to appear in popular culture. His missing l ...

'' (1954). Kaufman commissioned a script from Australian author Kay Keavney. No movie resulted, but the rights then transferred to

Fred Zinneman Alfred ''Fred'' Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an Austrian Empire-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play a ...

who directed a film version in 1960. Stills from this film were used in a 1961 adaptation for the TV series ''

Telestory ''Telestory'' is an Australian television series which aired 1961–1962. Produced by Artransa Park and aired on ATN-7, it was a 15-minute series in which an actor would read from a book. The first season consisted of Leonard Teale reading '' The ...

'', where the novel was read by actor

Leonard Teale Leonard George Thiele AO (26 September 192214 May 1994), professionally Leonard Teale, was a well-known Australian actor of radio, television and film and radio announcer, presenter and narrator known for his resonant baritone voice. He is be ...

. The character of Sean Carmody later appeared in Cleary's novel ''

The City of Fading Light ''The City of Fading Light'' is a 1985 novel written by Australian author Jon Cleary about a Hollywood actress who tries to rescue her Jewish mother from 1939 Berlin. The book features Sean Carmody, the character from his earlier novel '' The Sund ...

''.

References

External links

*The novel was serialised in the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

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Part OnePart TwoPart ThreePart FourPart FivePart SixPart SevenPart EightPart NinePart TenPart ElevenPart Twelve''The Sundowners''
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AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

(subscription required) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sundowners Australian novels adapted into films 1952 Australian novels Fiction set in the 1920s Novels set in Australia Charles Scribner's Sons books Novels by Jon Cleary Australian outback