Uphill Walkers: Portrait of a Family

by Madeleine Blais

In 1952, Madeleine Blais's father died suddenly, leaving his pregnant wife and their five young children to face their future alone. Uphill Walkers is the story of how the Blais family pulled together to survive and ultimately thrive in an era when a single-parent family was almost unheard-of. As they came of age in an Irish-American household that often struggled to make ends meet, the Blais children would rise again and again above all obstacles -- at every step of the way inspired by a mother who expected much but gave even more, as she saved and sacrificed to provide each child with the same education they would have received had their father lived. Beautiful, heartbreaking, and full of wonderful insights about sisterhood, brotherhood, and the ties that bind us together, Uphill Walkers is a moving portrait of the love it takes to succeed against the odds -- and what it means to be a family. "In plain-spoken prose ... Uphill Walkers has a remarkable dignity and eloquence." -- Carmela Ciuraru, USA Today "Beautiful ... This is the story of a family, united by blood, pride, and the bonds that defy logic." -- Ellen Kanner, The Miami Herald "Scrupulously candid and deeply compassionate...." -- Reeve Lindbergh, The Washington Post Book World

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Connie Ciampanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a whole lot happens in Madeline Blais' memoir, Uphill Walkers: Portrait of a Family. It is a slow, quiet book; the subtitle tells it all. That is not to lessen its value or enjoyment. While this is the portrait of a particular family, it is familiar to baby boomers, especially kids from working class families raised in industrial cities along the rivers of New England. Children and grand-children of of a variety of immigrants, Irish and French-Canadian (Blais is half of each, and Catholic, a not unusual combination in this area), Italian, Polish, Syrian, Armenian, among others.

So much of the Blais family story resonates with recognition, from the intimacies and squabbles, trials and celebrations of life in a large family to the societal upheaval of the sixties. Setting this family slightly apart is the loss of the father, who died of pancreatic cancer in the fall of 1952 when Madeline, the second-born, was five years old. He left a wife, five children, and another on the way. The oldest and youngest of the children are boys, the middle four girls. Mom, Maureen, vowed that her brood would be given all the opportunities they would have had if her husband had lived.

Elevating Blais' memoir even higher is its gorgeous language. A Pulitzer price winning reporter, then a journalism professor, she knows how to tell a story. Hers is told with great warmth and heart, with humor and honesty. It is insightful, poignant without pathos, and unflinching in confessing her own foibles. What binds the family together, as it always does in difficult times, is love.

Plain spoken and without self-pity, Uphill Walkers is to be savored, page after page.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sister loved this book and mailed it to me, thinking I would too. The author has lots of good one liners that must have made her a very readable journalist. Sentences like, “South Beach was filled with Jewish refugees who sat on deck chairs on porches in front of decaying art deco hotels, patting their canes like pets, living on fixed incomes, hoping that the diminishing supplies of pennies and minutes would have the good grace to run out simultaneously.” (p.184)
But, overall, I found the book depressingly sarcastic and the author as she described herself, “one cold cookie.” (p. 246).

[Jen Manning · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. I realize that it is someone's story--their life--however the pace made it unbearable. Tale begins with a little girl's description of her school and how her mother copes with being a single mother. I thought it would be interesting, and for some it might be, but I could not make myself stick with it.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a great snap shot into small town life in Western MA. Granted the main thread of the storyline dealt with mental illness in the 50's -90's and the change in care the developed in the US for those patients. That in it self was a great insight and reason to read the book. All in all I applaud Madeline for having the courage to tell her story of her family and their hardships.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This award-winning memoir of an Irish-American family in 1952 is witty and eloquent in its own right, but is even more captivating because of its setting in our local Western Massachusetts communities.

[Chapple · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough read emotionally but beautiful. I loved the obituaries being referred to as the Irish sports pages - never heard that expression before.