Cartoonist Kate Beaton recounts her time working in the Oil Sands after graduating from university. Eager to pay off her student debt, Beaton knows the best way to do that is a job in Alberta. Many Maritimers have done the same, and if it will get her out of debt fast and onwards to the career she wants then it’s worth it. But Beaton doesn’t understand what she’s in for until she gets there.
I’ve been a fan of Kate Beaton for a long time. I loved Hark! A Vagrant and have enjoyed seeing her gain more recognition with her first (of what I hope will be more) graphic memoir. I remember when Beaton first drew illustrations about her times in Fort McMurry and was surprised to see how much of her original comics made it into the final draft of the book.
What makes the format of a graphic memoir unique is how well the old “show don’t tell works” because Beaton can literally show readers what her time in Fort McMurry was like through comic panels. A brief introduction of sorts is given, the present Kate Beaton explaining the phenomenon of “going down the road” that many Maritimers have experienced for years, leaving their homes to find jobs typically in Ontario or Alberta where it was believed more jobs could be found and money could be made than at home (there’s a great old Canadian film about this for anyone interested). But after her self-insert the present Kate Beaton takes a step back and tells her twenty-one-year-old self’s story.
And it certainly is a story. There are casual horrors that Beaton experiences working there, from a man who was run over by a hauler in a pick-up truck, Beaton herself waking up with unidentified marks on her back and speaking to a colleague who wonders what kinds of cancer might lurk in their bodies from being their. And then there’s the reality of being one of the few women working in a male-dominated field, the casual sexism as men twice her age (or older), how many of those same men are married and cheat on their wives or worse, sexually harass/assault the women that are around them. Beaton herself recalls two assaults and multiple examples of sexual harassment that she is either blamed for or which is normalized.
Beaton never tries to excuse what is happening to her or around her, she just shows what happened and let’s the readers come up with their own conclusions, giving a surprising look into loneliness and how it affects and changes people. At one point she discusses with her sister (who also worked briefly in Fort McMurry) about if their father would have been like most of the men they’d seen, the ones who are unfaithful to their wives and who speak in gross sexualized ways to younger women, because of the isolation they have experienced.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is sure to become a Canadian classic. A bleak and stark look into what loneliness and isolation can do to a person, as well as what people will put themselves through to achieve financial security, this is a graphic memoir you don’t want to miss!
Publication: September 13th 2022
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
Pages: 430 pages (Paperback)
Source: Library
Genre: Non Fiction, Memoir, Graphic Novel,
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark A Vagrant fame, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. After university, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can’t find it in the homeland they love so much. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, what the journey will actually cost Beaton will be far more than she anticipates.
Arriving in Fort McMurray, Beaton finds work in the lucrative camps owned and operated by the world’s largest oil companies. Being one of the few women among thousands of men, the culture shock is palpable. It does not hit home until she moves to a spartan, isolated worksite for higher pay. She encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet never discussed. Her wounds may never heal.
Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, Northern Lights, and Rocky Mountains. Her first full-length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.
Sarah O'Connor 