I’ve been waiting several years to read this as Kate Beaton has been working on it and I’m super happy to say that this was well worth the wait. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a graphic memoir that covers two years that Beaton spent working in the Albertan oil sands. I got Maclean’s for a long time (back when it was weekly!) so I have a good base knowledge about the oil sands and their attendant environmental and social problems. Her nuanced portrayal and personal story really bring home the complexity of the situation, along with the damage it causes on multiple fronts.
The lack of work in Cape Breton and the need to pay back her student loans so she can devote herself to art leads her to head out to Alberta, where she knows she can get the best pay. Beaton does a great job of conveying her naivety and subsequent disillusionment. She also does a wonderful job of showing people’s complexity and the effect of bad systems on the land and the people on it. She grapples throughout with the question of whether the men she encounters would behave as badly elsewhere and how much the isolation of camp life contributes to their harassment and assault, while not excusing them for their actions. The portrayal of sexual assault in the book is harrowing, as we can see the seething possibility all around her like a fog and keep hoping she’ll escape. It broke my heart and she describes the long-standing aftermath of that trauma excellently.
In her afterword, Beaton writes that “the oil sands defy any easy characterization,” and she succeeds in her effort to show that throughout the book. As she says, it’s easy to show a place and people as all good or all bad, but the gifted storyteller can get across the reality and depth of the story. Ducks was worth the wait and is a really crucial read for nearly anyone. I was deeply moved by it and stayed up until past 1AM reading this. Super highly recommended, one of my top books of the year.
Warnings for sexual assault, pervasive sexual harassment, racism, sexism