by Thomas King
— George Wald
Quotes from the flyleaves of the book:
"To the memory of what we have lost and what we continue to destroy"
"Then who do we shoot?". 1940 film adaptation of Steinbeck's book Grapes of Wrath.
Wow, this is a very different book than his detective books and his last book Indians on vacation. It is going to stay with me a long time. It is called a satire, and I would agree with that but it is also subversive. The story is also timely with the recent discover of the graves of hundreds of children on the properties of former residential schools. The story is also very complex.
The story takes place in an Ontario town adjacent to an Indian reservation. The main character, Jeremiah Camp is trying to hide from the world in a residential school (irony??). He has been given the school by his former employer (how would one go about buying a residential school??). He has no tv nor Internet and likes it that way. He spends his time going to the river and digging up large flat stones to replace the wooden crosses in the school graveyard with headstones on which he carves the names of the children.
Camp has returned to this town but he really doesn't know it. His mother died when he was young and after that he spent years in foster homes away from the reserve. The only thing he has of his mother's is a battered lunchbox with a few photos in it. He thinks he knows which person is his mother but doesn't know who other people are.
Camp does not speak, by choice. People on the reserve and in the town speak to him. The town has quite a cast of quirky characters. He has a regular routine, quinoa for breakfast, then he goes into town to by a brownie which he takes to a cafe which is only open to him and a few other people. There he has a cappuccino and is read the news of the day by the cafe owner.
The people on the reservation are living in government supplied trailers which are plagued with black mould. At one point officials come out with spray cans they say will eliminate the mould. One man sprays the officials car and it takes the paint off the car..... The indigenous residents have another problem. The mayor of the town has cut off water and electricity to the reserve. He is trying to force them off the land. He wants to build a new town on their land.
Camp's seclusion is disturbed by the arrival of three men, employees of the daughter of his former employer (who is now dead). They refer to him as the Forecaster and tell him to come with them for a meeting. The head man is named Flood. He is reluctant but feels he has no choice. He doesn't want to have anything to do with his old life.
He meets his employer's daughter who tells him about a list of twelve names he had compiled in the past. Several of the people on the list have died, including her father. She wants him to figure out the connection between these deaths. He doesn't want to do it and goes back home.
His seclusion is further disrupted when an aboriginal woman, now a lawyer, returns to the reserve with her young daughter. She has no place to live and Flood has set the woman and her daughter up with furnished rooms in the residential school and installed internet and satellite tv. The little girl likes flood and he likes her but he resents his solitude being disrupted.
Later Flood also arranges for the local homeless people, who are being chased from their camping spots to be housed in the residential school. Now Camp is really upset. He goes to stay in a local hotel at the "company's" expense, to an abandoned building formerly used by the homeless and finally to the mouldy trailer of a relative who is also now recuperating from pneumonia at the school. Flood even finds him there.
Flood keeps getting hauled back to meetings with the dead bosses daughter and eventually determines that all the names were associated with one Foundation. It turns out all the people associated with the foundation were wealthy people who were trying to achieve immortality. They were thinking this would be good for society, but the question has to be asked for whom? Only the super rich??
In the end Flood finds out that that his boss's daughter has been wiping out the 12 super rich because she doesn't like what they are trying to do. She tries to get Flood to help her identify other rich people who should be removed. He declines to assist.
While the book is proceeding the band office trailer has been burned down. People originally blame the mayor but it turns out to be a mentally handicapped native boy who poured gasoline on a hot generator while trying to fill the tank. That is what caused the fire.
The boss's daughter hires the lawyer woman to handle a project to re development the buildings on the reservation. The company also pays her fees to get herself reinstated as a lawyer. There are also plans to turn the abandoned building into low cost housing, by the company. The woman tells Flood that now that she has a real job she and her daughter will find their own place to live. The mayor is under investigation for misuse of funds (taking bribes on business contracts).
The resident cat at the school had gotten into Camp's mother's lunchbox. When Camp's relatives see the pictures they tell him that the woman he had thought was his mother is not his mother. They don't see her in any of the pictures and don't know who the other people in the pictures are. His one connection to his mother evaporates.
As the book ends Camp is continuing to work on the grave markers but isn't sure if he will stay or go when his job is done.
The book is very topical as I mentioned at the beginning, the historical abuse and current neglect of native reserves is vividly portrayed. The huge gap between the rich and poor and the rights, abuse, ego of the rich is front and centre. Taking action against the rich is quite a step. It was really interesting how the main character never spoke but people spoke to him and seemed to know what he was thinking or what he wanted. We never did find out why he decided to quit speaking and quit his job.
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