john morrison

I really enjoyed reading John Morrison's The Creeping City, originally published in the late 1940s. Set in a hypothetical town in the Dandenongs (to Melbourne's east), the novel examines the pressures felt by a rural community which suddenly finds itself an object of desire by middle and upper class holiday makers - that is, it is undergoing gentrification. The process is outlined in detail suggesting that Morrison had some experience in this. Transport options play a major role, as do land prices of course and the attitude of shopkeepers, etc to the newcomers. Some residents fiercely resist the change; the children, by and large, are fiercely excited about it.

As a writer Morrison, who died last decade, is a fine example of a bridge between the old polemical style (he was a communist for much of his life apparently, and he does sometimes seem to be resisting having his characters launch into a tract) and a freer, observational one which at the same time - because he so often wrote short stories - comes close to that of the parable.

The Creeping City is of its age, I suppose, and (warning: spoiler) while the murder mentioned on the back cover blurb of the early 70s edition I was reading doesn't actually occur until about ten pages from the end, some of the relationships are too stilted and others too unproblematic (i.e., stock) it nevertheless paints a very effective portrait of a town without telephone or town power, based largely on berry farming, dependent on private 'cars' (taxis, I suppose) for transport, and yet with a view of the city lights at night. As people throughout the book are constantly observing, it's a way of life that's about to end. The surprise to me is it lasted as long as it did.