The book tells the stories of Theodora Luddon, a 20-year-old receptionist, Peter Groom, a member of the bourgeoisie who claims unemployment benefits, city magistrate James Riddle, working-class man Colin Rumble who hangs himself after murdering his family, and Paul Kronen, the owner of a big drapery store.
It is set in the 1930s, starts with Theodora fined two pounds by Riddle for indecent exposure at the beach and ends with Peter sentenced to a month in jail with hard labour after a riot in the city.
[4] Upsurge was the first Australian book to be officially banned under the guidelines of the Commonwealth Book Censorship Board (Norman Lindsay's Redheap had been banned under different legislation in 1930),[5] which had been established in 1933 by Prime Minister Joseph Lyon's United Australia Party (later renamed the Literature Censorship Board).
[9] However the main cause of its ban was its socialist tone and subversive agenda which criticised capitalism,[10] featuring Communist characters in its portrayal of life in the relief camps of the Depression.
[11] University of New South Wales academic Richard Nile later described Upsurge as "one of the most radical Australian books written during the interwar period".