These Days Are Numbered: Diary of a High-Rise Lockdown

by Rebecca Rosenblum

A diary of a woman longing for community in a crowded urban area during the pandemic times, when casual intimacies are forbidden.

The novelist Rebecca Rosenblum lives in St James Town, Toronto — the most densely populated square kilometre in all of Canada. When the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns arrive, she’s cut off from colleagues, friends, family, and not allowed to go near neighbours. As the world constricts, Rebecca keeps a weird and worried diary online — a love letter both to the outside world that she misses so desperately, and the little world inside St James Town that she can see from home.

As Rebecca watches and wonders from inside her box in the sky, her entries mix an account of a tough time in a tough place, joyful goofiness, and moments of unexpected compassion.

Genres: Memoir, Canada

328 pages, Paperback

Published July 11, 2023

About the author

Rebecca Rosenblum’s fiction has been short-listed for the Journey Prize, the National Magazine Award, the Amazon First Novel Award and the Trillium Award. Her collection, Once, won the Metcalf-Rooke Award and was one of Quill and Quire’s 15 Books That Mattered in 2008. her first novel So Much Love has been translated into French and Polish. Rebecca lives, works, and writes in Toronto.

Reviews

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that does exactly what it says on the tin. It is made up of posts on FB made during the pandemic by Rebecca Rosenblum from her home in Toronto.

At first I thought oh I'm going to get bored but in fact it was very interesting, not only to read how somebody else got through the whole experience but also how Canada dealt with the lockdowns and vaccinations.

I have to confess that I know nothing about Canadian life and after a couple of aborted attempts I totally gave up with the acronyms and just read the entries.

As you'd expect there are some worrying parts, some downright weird and quite a lot if chuckles along the way. The funniest bits are definitely the interactions between Rebecca and her husband Mark. She says in the acknowledgements that he's not always that funny but I'm not sure I believe that. You can tell a couple who bounce off each other in a jokey way. Its always a treat.

So thanks to Netgalley for the ARC and to Rebecca for writing what is essentially a pandemic diary. It made me wish I'd documented more of my experiences because we forget so quickly. All in all an interesting read that you can dip in and out of or read in great lumps as I did. I'm really interested in reading her fiction now too.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at how one extrovert handled the ‘rona, and all the isolation, fear, and lack of human connection impacted the world as a whole….expect make it funny and authentic!

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an expose of how one person experienced the first two years of the pandemic while living in toronto, ontario. (I mention the city and province because things occurred there related to the pandemic that are/were somewhat different from what, say, people on prince edward island would have faced.) Anxiety is on almost every page, for Rosenblum's health and well-being (physical, emotional, mental, societal and, eventually, financial) and for her cats, husband (author Mark Sampson), neighbours, family, the people in the neighbourhood, those who wander into her life, and so on. There is a sense of humour that comes through, grim at times, charmingly silly at others, but the main mood is nervousness. People were dying. Anti-vaxxers were present, especially at the end of the book (it starts March 13, 2020, and ends February 23, 2022). Many things she relied on fell apart or changed (apart from her marriage and some of her relationships). Rosenblum almost always wants to intercede in events, even those that can go on without her. Every reader will make up their own mind about that impulse.

Time, now, to let this settle. Think I'll soon re-read Gabriel Josipovici's 100 Days, a memoir of those first 3+ months of the pandemic, as a comparison could be interesting.

[Bex · Rating 4 out of 5]

How does a crowded, high-density urban area work when the world suddenly needs to be spaced six feet apart? What does community look like when everything it was based on is changed? And how can an extrovert fulfill their needs in the middle of all of this? These Days Are Numbered, a collection of journal-esque Facebook statuses, chart Rebecca Rosenblum's personal struggles with these questions, in the middle of the global pandemic.

Although I tend to stay far away from pandemic content (Help, with Jodie Comer? - I absolutely could not do it), there was something about the blurb of this book that grabbed me. It pretty much does what it says on the tin, being an account of Rosenblum's life during the major years of the pandemic.

It was, by turns, reflective, angry, hopeful, sad, and deeply funny: I adored the snippets of conversation between Rosenblum and her husband! Both because they were very funny, and also because I think we all had those truly bizarre interactions during the lockdowns, that only really come from living in close proximity for too long. That was really the beauty of the book, that even if the day-to-day experiences were different (I wasn't working during the bulk of the 2020 lockdowns, I was living in the suburbs of an English city) it still felt fundamentally relatable. It was reassuring, to know that someone on the other side of the world was having experiences that had some essential similarity to mine, when even the other side of the city was unreachable at that time.

I do think there is room for critique. Whilst I felt that Rosenblum was generally good at reflecting on her privilege during a time that drew such chasms, it still means that this book won't be representative for everyone. Even past the differences of class, race, and dis/ability - that all likely impacted each individual experience of the pandemic - she wasn't a front-line worker, she had her family relatively nearby, she was living with a loved one. As well, there were parts - mostly in relation to race - that felt a bit weird when considered as public Facebook posts, as opposed to a private diary. More generally, the pacing felt a little off - despite being made up of a collection of short snippets, it took me a long time to read, and it felt that the pandemic was nearing a plateau somewhat before the book itself.

What does community look like, when everything it was previously based on has to change? I think maybe it looks a bit like this.

[Josée Sigouin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was too soon to revisit the lockdowns, I thought as I contemplated These Days Are Numbered: Diary of a High-Rise Lockdown by Rebecca Rosenblum on my to-read shelf. I only gave it a try while waiting for another book to arrive from the library. But by then I was too engrossed to stop. The entries, originally posted on Rebecca Rosenblum's Facebook page, triggered many memories and reflections, either finding similarities or differences, that helped me process my own feelings about the extended lockdowns we all lived through. It helped that, like the author, my loved ones and I were mostly spared from serious hardships during that difficult time. We commiserated and did what we could to help.

Rebecca Rosenblum penned the posts while she, her partner, Mark Sampson, and their two cats lived in Toronto’s St James Town, a densely populated neighborhood that was disproportionally affected by the pandemic. Reading her compassionate, and at times bittersweet, anecdotes, was both a revelation and a treat. I remain in awe that the author could express so much, so coherently, so quickly. Edited for which entries to include and packaged as a book, the posts form a complete story, both compelling and creatively told.

I recommend These Days Are Numbered: Diary of a High-Rise Lockdown by Rebecca Rosenblum most highly to everyone, whether they communicate via social media or not, and whether they followed Rebecca Rosenblum during those trying times, or missed the near-daily doses of comfort she dispensed.

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recieved a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I honestly don't know how to rate this, so 3/5 it is. On the one hand, I'm nosy and lonely as hell because the isolation never really ended for me after the pandemic, so reading a day to day recount from some random person's life was something I liked, to an extent. But if I thought about it too much, it ended up spiraling towards "why the fuck am I reading this? why do I care?".
And on the other hand, this book is a piece of history. 50 years from now it'll be a very interesting read. But I lived through the pandemic, am still caught in the aftermath, and none of this is news to me. She seemed to be allowed to go to more places than I was, and she spent the whole thing with someone she loves and is only mildly annoyed at sometimes, which is something I didn't get to do, so sometimes it was like I felt that my experience was more of a history document than this book. Which is really shitty to think, because I don't mean to sound like those "my three year old could've painted this!!", but it's also a result of the times I think, of having gone through the pandemic together.
Although I understand the legal hijinks it could bring, it would've been nice if some comments on the posts were kept. At the beginning we're told some of this posts were conversations with someone in the comments, or continuations of answers she gave to some previous post. And then we just don't get to see that, not one comment, and I think the traces of other posts being a follow-up of some comments were scraped in the edits. If this were blog entries I'd understand, but they were originally social media posts!!! Where's the social??
And the end felt weird. It just stopped.The author gave so many good political opinions/monologues on the rest of the book, that it's just stupid to not explain why you stopped writing in february 2022. Was it because you got bored of facebook? Because you think covid ended there? Because no one was interacting with your posts anymore? It would've been the sensible thing to do to explain why it ended where it did.

[Lisa Nikolits · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admit I was initially concerned that I may not want to revisit the days of Covid, even although I was one of the few who quite liked part of that time. I enjoyed being off the crazy grid of normal life for a while. I enjoyed the quiet walks late at night, finding new parks and getting reaquainted with my (very bad) knitting. I liked the (initial) camaraderie, as we all came together as a nation and faced a global nightmare. But so much of it was so hard too and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back to it. I picked up These Days Are Numbered, knowing that while I’m a true fan of Rebecca Rosenblum’s work, I wasn’t sure if the book was going to unsettle and disturb me. I admit too, that I didn’t follow the initial posts on Facebook because in general, I find social media to be a rabbit hole that isn’t good for my psyche. I tend to post my comings and goings in case they interest people (and I try to focus on the positive wherever I can, I pop a thing on my wall and off I go). Which meant I was a newcomer to the posts and, in picking up the book, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

But, in short, the book is an absolute delight! Sure, it’s set during the time of Covid and it’s about that, but it’s so much more than that. Rosenblum is an absolute master of tapping into human emotions, and relationships and her observations into human nature, while so very insightful, are also so extremely kind and lovely.

And of course there is Mark Sampson who is, in this book, completely hilarious.
This book is about life, love, relationships, friendships, family, communities and society in general. It’s a treat read, beautifully written and you shouldn’t miss it.

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The diary of a woman longing for community in a crowded downtown in pandemic times, when casual intimacies are forbidden."

I loved the cover and the title of this book, both of which immediately drew me in.

Due to work I'm involved in professionally in relation to the importance of social connection to health and wellbeing, I still quite often find myself asking people "how was your pandemic?". Rebecca Rosenblum's whole book is an answer to that question, providing a great insight into her personal experience. Her pandemic was spent in a high rise apartment in Toronto's St James Town with her husband and cats, sharing her day to day observations on social media with the friends she could no longer see in person - those insightful, thoughtful and funny posts make up this book.

Rebecca is very likeable, and her reflections from her "box in the sky" are always engaging. She's both more gregarious and more anxious than me, but many of her thoughts and experiences were relatable, often amusing, occasionally sad. She's a very good writer and it's a readable and often thought provoking book, shining a powerful light on the impact of being cut off, in many of the ways that count, from one's usual connections and communities.

Many thanks for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy!

[Emily Saso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a five-star fan of this book! I read little chunks every day — and what a pleasure! It's such a relatable, honest, heart-wrenching and hilarious pandemic memoir. The moments Rosenblum shares about being on lockdown with her husband are among my favourites, as are the observations she makes about the apartment building she lives in and the neighbours she can’t *quite* get to know. Her longing for connection, her grief of the loss of the simple everyday pleasures of life in the Before Times, and her appreciation for all the little joys she discovers despite the circumstances that she – and all of us – faced… it really and truly warmed my heart. There’s such wonder and appreciation about the world inside of this book, and inside of the author. Rosenblum is SUCH a gifted, intelligent, loving observer of the minutiae of life, and that very welcome point of view shines through in these beautifully written pages. A joy to read. (Even, somehow, the sad parts.) HIGHLY recommend.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an interesting book to read. It consists of Facebook posts the author wrote during the pandemic. It was truly like wading through back through Covid and all the lockdowns. I live in Ontario and have family in Toronto, so the places and locations were familiar but even without that the feelings were familiar. The fear of the unknown and lack of information creating a whirlwind. It felt almost unreal to read back through these times.

The author's writing style had me reminiscing, laughing and truly wishing I had documented my own experience. I loved the openness that she shared from working from home to bed bugs to shopping trips. I definitely can can see myself coming back to this book and sharing it with others.

Huge thank you to Dundurn Press for my gifted copy!

[Bri Childs · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a miss for me. I appreciate the purpose behind it - looking back at a not so far off reality we all faced and experienced in different ways and commenting on the minutia of loneliness and unknown and boredom we all faced.

However, we all had WILDLY different thoughts and experiences during this time, so it was hard for me not to feel confused or annoyed or turned off or simply not relate to certain things. Maybe just too soon to read this!

I also was taken aback by the abrupt ending. An afterword and some commentary about why and when it ended might have helped with that.

Thank you to Dutton Books for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Irene Mckay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A relatable moments and timed-events that happened recently that everyone had experienced. A record of things happened during the pandemic, the understanding and frustration at the same time being felt which the character trying to challenge and to overcome.

Overall the read was satisfactory.

3.4/5 stars

Thank you Netgalley for the copy.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

These Days are Numbered is a compilation of Facebook posts written during the COVID-19 pandemic, as such it doesn't have much of a narrative structure and its documentation of the events of that time is pretty inconsistent. The posts are mainly about day-to-day life and not politics or any broader themes. It is more interesting than I thought it would be once I fully understood the premise.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice writing here. I think a lot of readers will relate or at least empathize with the author. An accurate description of this book is provided by the publisher (which is not always done).

Thanks very much for the free book for review!!

[Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. This was a well-written insight into Rosenblum's experience of lockdown. She wrote well about daily life (even though in some ways there wasn't much to write about!) and her style was engaging. Also, Alice and Evan sound great!

[Theodore Gumbril · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and charming insights from a quirky mind.