Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands 02/19/24

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (2022) is a graphic memoir of time spent in Alberta in some of the worst jobs ever. She worked in the tool cribs of various oil companies in remote places where the men outnumbered women 50 to 1.

Kate is from Nova Scotia and in the early 2000s when she was newly graduated from university and had student loans to pay off. Apparently Canada is less forgiving with payoff than the U.S. ones. With no easy prospect for a job at home she heads to the oil sands where she could pay off her loans in months rather than years.

Much of the book is spent with Kate trying to do her job and trying not to react to the toxic masculinity around her. Unfortunately she like every other woman in this book is ultimately assaulted by one of the men she works with. Of course its her reputation and job on the line.

This is a brutal read with some moments of humor. Beaton's backgrounds are intricate and capture the destruction to a once beautiful landscape.

In the middle of all of this, there's an interlude where she works at the Maritime Museum in Victoria. Having been there and knowing first hand how small it is and how little money small nonprofits like that place have, I knew from the outset that her time there was doomed.

Five stars

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