Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

There's a lot of terms you could use to describe the themes in this book. Capitalism, patriarchy, settler-colonialism, climate change but the book doesn't need to throw these terms around. It just shows them through the eyes of a person who experienced them. There's also a feeling of "there but by the grace of god go I" having been tempted by the possibility of oil work myself during the Great Recession. The story of how our drive for oil eats at our humanity is vital and helps show the cost of how we've structured our society at a personal level. At times funny, heartwarming, and tragic, a fantastically written and drawn work that I have to highly recommend!

I've loved Kate Beaton's since I read her comics on live journal, so I was destined to love this. Beaton has always been able to present a version of Canadian history and life that, here in the States, we don't hear about at all. Even offhand things she'd parodied have opened up worlds of Canadian culture I wouldn't have known at all about. Whether it's incredibly Scottish folklore from Cape Breton or, in this case, the oil sands of Alberta, she paints a picture of the people and places so clearly that we come away feeling familiar with them, even if we've never been anywhere near them.In this book, she painted a picture so vivid and so compelling that I read the whole thing straight through. Not every scene or memory is by itself powerful (although many made me cry), but the slices of life she puts together add up to a powerful whole. It's a book I know I'll be recommending to friends and family for years.

I’m Dave, Margaret’s husband. A totally different book than anything I have ever read. Kate Beaton did a excellent job . I’ve worked in conditions of mostly men and a few women and can understand the conditions she worked under. Although she had her share of unpleasant experiences she often stated that their were lots of men that just did their job and was never involved in what she experienced.The want for big money can cause negative behaviors . A good read. A picture can help reduce the need for written words.

I'm not usually one to buy illustrated books, but I read a review of 'Ducks' and was compelled by both the author's experience and the way that she chose to craft her story. I wasn't disappointed - it was an interesting story, and the illustrations added to the narrative.

This is the first graphic novel I’ve ever picked up. I found an evenhanded Adventure from the front lines of the times in the oil sands of Alberta, Canada. I learned a great deal and enjoyed the portrayal of the characters so well done in both the cartoons and the text. Solid as a rock! Thank you, Kate Beaton!

I was surprised how much I enjoyed reading this. Ms Beaton has done an amazing job of storytelling.So thankful for the recommendation from John Warner - The “BibliOracle” of the Chicago Tribune.Several male members of my family worked in the Tar Sands projects over the last 30 years - mostly on Oil Exploration and the crew management side. But rumors about the rough environment were confirmed in this book. Reading this explains why one important family marriage failed from the “Wild West” behavior that took place there.As Ms Beaton acknowledged, this work provided important income for those who worked the Tar Sands projects. My family included.But the harm to the First Nations People and the environment are just terribly, horribly sad.

Kate Beaton is an extremely skilled artist and storyteller. Reading "Ducks," I felt like I was listening to someone who sees people, including herself, for the incredibly complex beings we all are. I think I'll be thinking about this work for a long time. I hope a lot of people read it. If you like comics/graphic novels, memoirs, stories -- if you like to hear someone say, "This is how it has been to be me, to live my life" -- then I think you'll be glad to read "Ducks."

Ducks is a beautiful, painful, thoughtful slice of truth.

I loved Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant comics so when I heard this was coming out I decided to get it even though I knew it was likely to be darker and I'm not typically a person for autobios. The illustrations of the sites and the machinery are awestriking in their detail and Kate's story is familiar to anybody who takes a grim job to try and gain a bit of freedom later on - but only partly, because how many other people end up somewhere so bleak and desolate? And what does it do to them? My heart broke for her, and her coworkers, so many times over and even though it ended on a happy note I had to go away and think on it for a while. It was an amazing window into a world I had no idea existed and I would recommend it to just about everybody - with a small warning that it gets very dark before the light.

Essential reading if you want to know about female experience in a highly male industry - drawings are adequate to the story but just in the usual graphic novel style. I’d like to see a publisher being more creative with graphic novel form. It’s a bit like making electric cars look like ordinary petrol cars! A graphic novel doesn’t have to look like a conventional novel. I enjoyed it very much and congratulations to the author for her frank account

Forty years ago, I was among the first women to serve on vessels in the Canadian Naval Reserve. Like Kate, I was sexually harassed 24/7. Her book brought back such vivid memories of those daunting and often frightening experiences. But more than this, her book is a revelation of the human condition: how degradation of the environment leads to the degradation of both men and women- about how being exploited by the oil industry leads us to exploit each other as individuals. Bravo to this brave, brave woman.

Kate Beaton's book does not hit a wrong note. She ably depicts the positive aspects of the oil sands industry: the work for Canadian tradespeople which allowed them to build homes, support families, and pay off student loans. She illustrates the camaraderie and support among the camp workers, the bonds felt by fellow Maritimers along with the negative aspects of loneliness, misogyny, powerlessness and environmental damage that were also part of life in an isolated camp. I especially liked the juxtaposition of the raw beauty of the North: the bison and the Northern lights alongside the ugliness of the industrial site. And the portrayal of the perpetually cranky worker who had experienced one too many of life's disappointments was so human. A beautifully planned and executed book! It was the first graphic novel I have ever read and I found that the images enhanced the narrative and brought deeper insights. Well done, Kate Beaton!

Couldn't put it down. Finished it in less than a week. This book illuminated the potential of graphic novels for me and how they can be so much more than a written work without sacrificing depth.The author does a great job of portraying the problematic aspects of the male-dominated oil sands culture while simultaneously understanding and having empathy for the men who end up in it and shaped by it. It strikes the same balance between acknowledging the damage being done to the environment and the indigenous community close by, and the honest motivations of the workers who end up there (from all over Canada, but many from her home on the East Coast) trying to provide a life for their families when economic prospects have dried up at home.The whole thing is a incredibly human and incredibly moving and honest snapshot of the oil sands, as well as a reflection on our Canadian culture that all at once criticizes it, enables it, and depends on it, while never looking at it too closely, or bothering to understand the human lives and stories that are most directly impacted by it.