sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
soph ([personal profile] sophia_sol) wrote2022-10-10 08:03 pm

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, by Kate Beaton

Oof. The kind of book where you finish and have to just kind of sit in a daze for a while as you let it settle.

This is a graphic memoir by Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant fame, about her two years working in the oil sands of Alberta when she was a fresh university graduate - a very young woman working in an isolated environment that was mostly men separated from their communities. It's a wonderful, nuanced look at a complicated and difficult place, and Kate's writing and art and impeccable sense of pacing do an amazing job of carrying you with her into the emotions of the moment, in everything she depicts.

Not sure what else to say about it, really. Book good. Very recommend. Content notes for sexual harassment and sexual assault.
silverflight8: bee on rose  (Default)

[personal profile] silverflight8 2022-10-11 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh, I've seen some of her comic strips about this that she posted on Hark! A Vagrant. It's kind of a wild place - remote, physical labour, but people with a high school diploma can go there right after HS (assuming they graduate during a boom time) and make an absurd amount of money. Kind of nuts. /grew up in Calgary