A review by thebacklistborrower
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

challenging dark informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

“Thank goodness, no!” was my exclamation to my mum, who suggested I must have had similar experiences in my career in engineering as Kate had in Ducks. At that time, I was approximately half way through, and after a duology of harrowing scenes, I’d paused my read. But by the end of the book, I had seen more of my experience than I expected. Weeks later, and I’m reflecting on the very last panels still.

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a graphic memoir written and illustrated by Kate Beaton, who, like many other Antlantic Canadians, went to work in the oil sands after getting her arts degree. Spending a total of two years there between 2007 and 2009, with a year in Victoria in the middle, she wrestles with the emotional, physical, and environmental toxicity of the work. The title is a reference to a mass poisoning of migrating ducks at the Syncrude plant, but its not hard to draw the line between the ducks and the workers who both suffer-- and die-- from the greed of corporations trying to wring every dollar of profit out of their operations. 

At first, Kate is deep in the fields, one of only a few woman working amongst hundreds of men. She’s on full display, and the men don’t use innuendo when talking about her. Its this level of misogyny I’m grateful to not have experienced. In the second half, however, she’s working an office job, and it's there I see my experience: not the obvious misogyny of creeps, but the insidious, casual chatter that has women question whether they are being uptight, or overreacting, or trying to determine what is worth stepping out of line to challenge. She learned, as I have, that in some situations, you just keep quiet and move on. Not only can you not fight every battle, but to try would be social suicide, and in her case, even dangerous.  

Kate shows that good people can be bad people when put in bad places. Friendly folk can be misogynists, and many people don’t see it that way. This book can, and will, shift those perspectives. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings