Mark Vetoshkin/Staff Reporter
Indigenous oppression was very common in Canada during the 1930s all the way to the 2000s. The author of the book All the Quiet Places by Brian Thomas Isaac, was born and lived on the Okanagan Indian reserve. Thomas worked in the oil fields and was also a brick layer. He retired at the age of fifty and decided he wanted to start writing books, so 17 years later after his retirement he published All the Quiet Places.
All the Quiet Places is a book that explores the harsh realities and hardships of living on the reserve and what most people went through while living on the reserve and being considered an “Indian”.
The book begins with a boy named Eddie Toma, Eddie lives with his mom, Grace, and his little brother Lewis on the Okanagan reserve. They live in a small beat down cabin which has no electricity to keep the
family warm. Grace is urged by an Indian agent to send Eddie to a residential school. Grace is against sending her kids to a residential school due to its environment. Grace’s family friends Ray and Isabel offer Grace a chance to work on a farm in Washington to escape the Indian agent’s efforts to enroll Grace’s children into a residential school.
Life on the farm takes a turn when alcohol abuse and physical abuse becomes prominent. Eddies friend Gregory faces dark back lash which results in a tragedy that effects Eddie. When Eddie is sent to school, he is faced with bullying like Grace expected from kids. One of the kids bullying him is named Rodney Bell, and he and Eddie have a rivalry, which comes to an abrupt settlement when Eddie is faced with anger and rage. When I read the book, I really enjoyed how there wasn’t sugar coating on everything, and it was the reality of what happens.
Thomas was honest about the brutal life of living on the reserve and life being considered an “Indian”. Eddies character was unique, and I feel like he couldn’t have been made better. Thomas did well in giving you an experience feeling like you were there. My final recommendation of the book is if you aren’t ready to experience harsh realities and sort of a brutal book, this is not the book for you.
All the Quiet Places was an eye opener for me, and I really felt touched by the book and was shocked when I read some parts that this was in this book. So, if you like books that explore realities with no sugar coating on what happens, this is the book for you.
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