Walkups

by Lance Blomgren

Originally published in October 2000, Walkups was the first conundrum press book with a spine and began a slippery slope into the murky world of publishing. The book sold out its initial print run quickly and has been unavailable for many years. This edition includes a dozen new stories by Blomgren in a fancy new package designed by Montreal artist Justin Stephens.

Genres: Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2000

Reviews

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

This is just one of a whole series of incredibly good-looking books I've received in the last few years from various Canadian small presses, one of the many benefits of living in a country that spends so much government money on the arts (nearly all of these books have the Canadian Council on the Arts listed on their copyright pages as a part financier of their projects); this one, for example, written by Goodreads regular Lance Blomgren and put out by the always excellent conundrum press, is a series of "micro-stories" that are all conceptually based around a sequence of walk-up apartments and stores and their resulting interior environments, telling a nebulous tale of relationships and alienation among a group of urban ne'er-do-wells that isn't exactly traditionally linear, but unlike more experimental work can at least be narratively followed from one short bit to the next. The story itself, although not bad, is no great shakes either, the kind of thing you'd expected from a typical clever MFA student; but Walkups is getting a few extra points today simply for being designed and outputted so incredibly sharply, one of the few saving graces among trade paperbacks these days that's going to allow a select amount of them to still be financial successes. It comes recommended to those looking for something unusual and of high quality.

Out of 10: 8.4

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walkups is a quite fascinating cycle of fictive fragments bringing the reader, as if through the keyhole, voyeuristically into bits of the lives of the inhabitants of apartment units scattered around Montreal. Accompanying the texts are a series of enigmatic photos of interiors which perfectly match the tone of the scenes described without in any way illustrating them. The style is reminiscent of the French New Novel c. 1960 and also reminded me very much of Mario Bellatin's novellas in his book Chinese Checkers one of which also had text with accompanying photos which I liked a lot. Walkups is well worth tracking down.

[J-Elfasy (Montreal) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lance Blomgren’s Walkups is a collection of stories that all take place inside Montreal’s houses, condominiums, and apartments. As the reader advances through the slim novella, a feeling of impending doom sets in; throughout the book, there are freeze frames of uneasy moments lived by the occupants.

Among the many addresses, a recurring one: Apt. d’Amours. Inside these apartments lives a man, Walkups’ regular narrator. He’s a new tenant who starts out as a mildly nervous character whose lucidity matches his feelings of alienation. The scene with the phone technician, an indifferent repairman, sets the tone for a panicky individual whose causes for panic and angst are not identifiable, but are palpable. From then on, even his sexual interactions with his object of affection, Jane, are complex and make the reader uneasy.

But the reader doesn’t take it all in one shot. The narrator’s odd moments are intercut with moments of everyday life in various apartments. From a hipster party to a woman cleaning up her baby, the moments are varied, and very different from one another — except for the fact they are written in an almost epic, dangerous style. The whole book reads like a huge fresco that is about to collapse if you take a look at the big picture instead of the tiny individual pieces that comprise it. Only the recurring narrator eventually expresses the complete paranoia his building inspires in him.

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. Weird short stories of neighbors in Montreal. Only one person is ever named. Although some aspects were cool, this was too weird and abstract for me. I had to push myself hard to finish this.
The other reviewers call this “experimental”, and describe it as “fictive fragments” with a range of “point of view experiments.”

[Ruthie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seems to be written in an experimental style. We get glimpses into the inhabitants of many different walk-up apartments. The glimpses are short, a bit unsettling, and never fulfilling. Not my cup of tea...

[S C · Rating 2 out of 5]

J’avais ce livre dans ma bibliothèque depuis un certain temps et je l’avais commencé plusieurs fois sans jamais m’y plonger complètement. Comme une autre personne l’a dit dans une autre des critiques, ce n’était tout simplement pas ma tasse de thé. J’ai trouvé ça décousu, inquiétant, sans fil conducteur ou véritable histoire. Les photos qui accompagnent le livre ne m’ont pas vraiment non plus attirée, bref, ce n’était tout simplement pas un livre pour moi. Je ne crois pas que c’était un mauvais livre, ou une mauvaise traduction (je l’ai lu en français), je crois juste que c’était trop « expérimental » à mon goût. Je préfère une histoire moins fragmentée et un peu plus linéaire, même si je sais parfois apprécier les livres étranges si l’atmosphère est particulièrement bien dépeinte ou si l’histoire sait me mener à bon port malgré des détours sinueux. Dans ce cas -ci, j’avais juste l’impression de lire une collection d’idées de ce qu’aurait pu devenir le livre mais sans aller jusqu’au bout. Bref, je ne le recommande pas personnellement mais en lisant les autres critiques je constate que si vous êtes du genre à aimer les trucs plus expérimentaux, vous aimerez peut être ! Je ne pense pas que mon goût personnel peut se permettre de dire autre chose que « ce n’était pas ma tasse de thé ».

[Shell Frain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book utilizes a bewildering range of point-of-view experiments, to strange, moody effect. A book of interlaced vignettes, almost poems. melancholic, darkly funny and just a tad creepy. Canadian.