It sounds like these words could have been written yesterday, but these are the words of writer John O'Grady who wrote the popular comic novel `They're a Weird Mob` that came out in 1957 (!) and sold 130,000 copies in its first year of publication. It tells the story of "Nino Culotta” and Italian immigrant, who comes to Australia as a journalist, employed by an Italian publishing house, to write articles about Australians and their way of life for those Italians that might want to emigrate to Australia. In order to learn about real Australians, Nino takes a job as a brickie's labourer (a labourer to a bricklayer) with a man named Joe Kennedy. The comedy of the novel revolves around his attempts to understand English as it was spoken in Australia, by the working classes, in the 1950s and 1960s (Nino had previously learned 'good' English from a textbook).

 

The novel is a social commentary on Australian society—specifically male, working class society—of the period. Women mostly feature as cameos in the story with the slight exception of Kay (whose surname is not revealed in the novel), who becomes Nino's wife. In the novel, Nino meets Kay in a cafe in Manly and their introduction is effected by Nino trying to teach Kay that she cannot eat spaghetti using a spoon. The final message of the novel is that immigrants to Australia should count themselves fortunate and should make efforts to assimilate into Australian society, including learning to speak English. It is a positive, if slightly superficial, story about Australian society and values.

 

It has been over 50 years now and Australia has changed and the countries immigrants come from have changed as well, but do you recognise some of the issues in your own life today? Have a look at some Youtube clips at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IF92uEctBc

 

And read some comments at: