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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Wresting his family from the easy living of nineteenth-century Sydney, Cornelius Laffey takes them to northern Queensland where thousands of hopefuls are digging for gold in the mud. They confront the horror of Aboriginal dispossession, and Cornelius is sacked for reporting the slaughter. This is an unforgettable tale of the other side of Australia's heritage.
Source: Penguin Random House Australia.
(https://penguin.com.au/books/its-raining-in-mango-popular-penguins-9780143204749)
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 10 (NSW Stage 5). Also suitable for Year 11 or Year 12 Literature.
Themes
Aboriginality, Australian identity, belonging, connection to place, family relationships, generation gap, identity, isolation, love, memory, otherness, postcolonialism, racism
General Capabilities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
Notes
-
A sequence of stories, tracing a family from their move from Sydney to Cooktown in the 1860s, through to the 1980s. A saga of four generations.
-
This work is frequently referred to as a novel and can be read as either a collection of short stories or a single novel.
Contents
-
How to Get Sacked,
single work
short story
The arrival of the Laffey family among the frontier violence of Queensland's north becomes the topic of family reminiscences with a particular focus on Cornelius Laffey, a journalist, who wrote of the family's experiences and the behaviours and events they witnessed.
- Getting to Know Them, single work short story (p. 35-43)
- Cross the Wide Missouri, single work short story (p. 44-57)
-
Singles,
single work
short story
Following the disappearance of her husband, Jessica Olive supports her family by running a hotel. Her two boys succeed in making their own way in the world and, as Jessica ages, she makes fewer concessions to the male-dominated world in which she is bound.
- Heart Is Where the Home Is, single work short story (p. 72-79)
- Right Off the Map, single work short story (p. 80-87)
-
Getting There,
single work
short story
An adolescent girl endures the emotional turbulence of humiliation inflicted by the nuns at her boarding school, as well as the thrill of the first innocent stirrings of attraction to a stranger she encounters at the library.
- The Kiss, the Fade-Out, the Credits, single work short story (p. 97-108)
-
Committing Sideways,
single work
short story
The death of an uncle facilitates a reunion between the orphaned niece and nephew he had raised. Will, scarred by his war experiences, is comforted by his sister, Connie.
- Build-Up, single work short story (p. 125-143)
-
Grass,
single work
short story
Ageing Will Laffey finds he can no longer handle the task of keeping the grass on his property under control. His nephew brokers a deal with some friends to take on the task, and this leads to a new phase in Will's life.
-
It's Raining in Mango,
single work
short story
For Aboriginal man, Billy Mumbler, life in north Queensland offers a precarious existence, particularly under the watchful eye of the law. Trying to live peacably and protect his family proves almost impossible.
-
Old Man in a Dry Month,
single work
short story
Gentle and ageing Will Laffey has never been able to form a close relationship with anyone, other than his sister Connie. When he becomes enamoured of one of a group of young people he has allowed to live on his property, the youth's callous indifference and rejection is too much for Will to bear.
- Source Material, single work short story (p. 201-208)
-
How to Get Sacked,
single work
short story
The arrival of the Laffey family among the frontier violence of Queensland's north becomes the topic of family reminiscences with a particular focus on Cornelius Laffey, a journalist, who wrote of the family's experiences and the behaviours and events they witnessed.
- Getting to Know Them, single work short story (p. 37-47)
- Cross the Wide Missouri, single work short story (p. 49-64)
-
Singles,
single work
short story
Following the disappearance of her husband, Jessica Olive supports her family by running a hotel. Her two boys succeed in making their own way in the world and, as Jessica ages, she makes fewer concessions to the male-dominated world in which she is bound.
- Heart Is Where the Home Is, single work short story (p. 81-90)
- Right Off the Map, single work short story (p. 91-100)
-
Getting There,
single work
short story
An adolescent girl endures the emotional turbulence of humiliation inflicted by the nuns at her boarding school, as well as the thrill of the first innocent stirrings of attraction to a stranger she encounters at the library.
- The Kiss, the Fade-Out, the Credits, single work short story (p. 113-126)
-
Committing Sideways,
single work
short story
The death of an uncle facilitates a reunion between the orphaned niece and nephew he had raised. Will, scarred by his war experiences, is comforted by his sister, Connie.
- Build-Up, single work short story (p. 145-165)
-
Grass,
single work
short story
Ageing Will Laffey finds he can no longer handle the task of keeping the grass on his property under control. His nephew brokers a deal with some friends to take on the task, and this leads to a new phase in Will's life.
-
It's Raining in Mango,
single work
short story
For Aboriginal man, Billy Mumbler, life in north Queensland offers a precarious existence, particularly under the watchful eye of the law. Trying to live peacably and protect his family proves almost impossible.
-
Old Man in a Dry Month,
single work
short story
Gentle and ageing Will Laffey has never been able to form a close relationship with anyone, other than his sister Connie. When he becomes enamoured of one of a group of young people he has allowed to live on his property, the youth's callous indifference and rejection is too much for Will to bear.
- Source Material, single work short story (p. 231-240)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Will the Real Subject Please Stand Up? Autobiographical Voices in Biography
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 18 no. 1 2021; (p. 25-30)'Biographers exist in a tight partnership with their chosen subject and there is often during the research and writing an equivalent reflective personal journey for the biographer. This is generally obscured, buried among an overwhelming magnitude of sources while the biographer is simultaneously developing the all-important ‘relationship’ required to sustain the narrative journey ahead. Questions and selections beset the biographer, usually about access to, or veracity of, sources but perhaps there are more personal questions that could be put to the biographer. The many works on the craft of biography or collections about the life-writing journey tell only some of this tale. It is not often enough, however, that we acknowledge how biography can be unusually ‘double-voiced’ in communicating a strong sense of the teller in the tale: the biographer’s own life experience usually does lead them to the biography, but also influences the shaping of the work. These are still ‘tales of craft’ in one sense, but autobiographical reflections in another. Perhaps this very personal insight can only be attempted in the ‘afterlife’ of biography; the quiet moments and years that follow such consuming works. In this article, I reflect on this unusually emotional form of life writing.' (Publication abstract)
-
Thea Astley's It's Raining in Mango
[Essay] : It’s Raining in Mango
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Australia 2013-; Australian Book Review , August no. 373 2015; (p. 54-57)
— Review of It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1987 selected work short story'It’s Raining in Mango: Pictures from the Family Album was first published in 1987, on the eve of the bicentenary of white settlement in Australia, when many versions of the story of Australia were advanced and debated. Thea Astley’s book presents a family, the Laffeys, as a microcosm of the national story. It is a novel made up of stories told by Connie, an ageing woman, as she mulls over ‘pictures from the family album’, covering a period from the 1860s to the 1980s.' (Introduction)
-
History : The Much Less than Final Frontier, and the Story of Thea Astley's Short Stories in It's Raining in Mango
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Frontier Skirmishes : Literary and Cultural Debates in Australia after 1992 2010; (p. 153-168) - y Unsettling Stories : Settler Postcolonialism and the Short Story Composite Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Press , 2010 Z1784101 2010 single work criticism 'The first study of the synergies between postcolonialism and the genre of the short story composite, Unsettling Stories considers how the form of the interconnected short story collection is well suited to expressing thematic aspects of postcolonial writing on settler terrain. Unique for its comparative considerations of American, Canadian, and Australian literature within the purview of postcolonial studies, this is also a considered study of the difficult place of the postcolonial settler subject within academic debates and literature. Close readings of work by Tim Winton, Margaret Laurence, William Faulkner, Stephen Leacock, Sherwood Anderson, Olga Masters, Scott R. Sanders, Thea Astley, Tim O'Brien and Sandra Birdsell are positioned alongside critical discussions of postcolonial theory to show how awkward affiliations of individuals to place, home, nation, culture, and history expressed in short story composites can be usefully positioned within the broader context of settler colonialism and its aftermath' (publisher website).
-
The Best Book You've Never Read : It's Raining in Mango
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 March 2006; (p. 20)
— Review of It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1987 selected work short story
-
[Review] It's Raining in Mango
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Review , October vol. 4 no. 10 1989; (p. 15)
— Review of Working Hot : A Novel 1989 single work novel ; It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1987 selected work short story -
Philosophical Substance
1987
single work
review
— Appears in: The CRNLE Reviews Journal , no. 2 1987-1988; (p. 19-20)
— Review of It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1987 selected work short story -
The Best Book You've Never Read : It's Raining in Mango
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 March 2006; (p. 20)
— Review of It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1987 selected work short story -
[Review] It's Raining in Mango
1987
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , November vol. 1 no. 2 1987; (p. 114)
— Review of It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1987 selected work short story -
Compassion for a 'Family of Nutters'
1988
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser Magazine , 30 April 1988; (p. 10)
— Review of It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1987 selected work short story ; Limestone and Lemon Wine : Stories 1988 selected work short story -
'Passing Ghosts' : Reading the Family Album in Thea Astley's It's Raining in Mango and Reaching Tin River
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , Summer vol. 16 no. 1 2001; (p. 23-44) -
Thea Astley : Exploring the Centre
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Subverting the Empire : Explorers and Exploration in Australian Fiction 2004; (p. 97-144) - y Unsettling Stories : Settler Postcolonialism and the Short Story Composite Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Press , 2010 Z1784101 2010 single work criticism 'The first study of the synergies between postcolonialism and the genre of the short story composite, Unsettling Stories considers how the form of the interconnected short story collection is well suited to expressing thematic aspects of postcolonial writing on settler terrain. Unique for its comparative considerations of American, Canadian, and Australian literature within the purview of postcolonial studies, this is also a considered study of the difficult place of the postcolonial settler subject within academic debates and literature. Close readings of work by Tim Winton, Margaret Laurence, William Faulkner, Stephen Leacock, Sherwood Anderson, Olga Masters, Scott R. Sanders, Thea Astley, Tim O'Brien and Sandra Birdsell are positioned alongside critical discussions of postcolonial theory to show how awkward affiliations of individuals to place, home, nation, culture, and history expressed in short story composites can be usefully positioned within the broader context of settler colonialism and its aftermath' (publisher website).
-
History : The Much Less than Final Frontier, and the Story of Thea Astley's Short Stories in It's Raining in Mango
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Frontier Skirmishes : Literary and Cultural Debates in Australia after 1992 2010; (p. 153-168) -
Thea Astley : This Great Unknown
1989
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18 November 1989; (p. 88)
Awards
- 1989 shortlisted NBC Banjo Awards — NBC Banjo Award for Fiction
- 1988 winner FAW ANA Literature Award
- 1988 winner Warana Writers' Awards — Steele Rudd Award
- Cooktown, Port Douglas - Cooktown area, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland,