#9 [2023/CBR15] Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

I'm not a big reader of graphic novels, but I usually read one or two a year and appreciate the differences in storytelling. With graphic novels, I've always steered towards memoirs, and Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (2022) by Kate Beaton, is no different. I first saw Ducks on NPR's Best Books List. 

I almost immediately felt a connection to Beaton. We're not too far apart in age, and I felt her pain as she tells the story of how she struggled after she graduated from college with a liberal arts degree. Beacon's from Nova Scotia--where my mother's family came from--and an area of Canada struggling economically. Forced by the crushing weight of her student loans and lack of employment opportunities, she decides to go East and take a higher paying job in Alberta's oil sands.

Beaton hears that working in the camps is where you make the money, but she's not prepared for the reality of it all. She's isolated and surrounded by many unhappy men who have very few outlets. The amount of attention she gets is staggering, and it is not welcome. I am familiar with being in a work environment dominated by men, and some of this hit quite close to home. But because Beaton wasn't able to leave and she was so isolated, her situation seemed much more intense. In addition, Beaton survived sexual assault there as well. I can't imagine how hard it all was on her.

Although Beaton's personal experiences in dealing with the monstrous amount of sexism in camp dominate the storyline, she also delves into the environmental effects on the area around her, as well as the hardships on most of the other workers who are forced to be away from their families for so long in such an intense, isolated place

When Beaton can't stand the oil sands any longer, she goes to Victoria for a year to work. She finds a job she loves in a museum, but she's barely earning enough money to survive. Her loans make this dream of a world impossible, and she is forced to go back to the oil sands--this time taking a relatively safer office job.

I really liked this graphic novel. It hit me emotionally--much stronger than I expected. My only nitpick is that there were many characters and different camps--making it difficult to keep everyone straight. In addition, the novel sometimes changed scenes or times and that wasn't always clear. However, it was still very readable, understandable, and memorable, with a deep emotional impact and a nuanced point of view. Recommended.