Court reviewed Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
Review of 'Ducks' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Does an excellent job of showing the many different layers of the work and the people
Due anni nelle sabbie bituminose
Graphic novel, 436 pages
Italiano language
Published by Bao publishing.
Un libro già premiatissimo in tutto il mondo, definito all’unanimità uno dei più belli e toccanti del 2022. Portato ora in Italia da BAO Publishing, per cui si appresta a diventare un titolo imprescindibile, è un libro di ricordi dolorosi ma necessari: uno spaccato di vita autobiografico in cui l’autrice racconta i suoi anni passati a lavorare per una compagnia petrolifera. Unica donna in un contesto sempre troppo permeato di mascolinità tossica, subisce violenze psicologiche e fisiche, in un crescendo di brutalità che non fa sconti. Un libro che però assume i toni di una storia di ricordi, non di denuncia, e che si rivela proprio per questo tanto più toccante e intenso.
Does an excellent job of showing the many different layers of the work and the people
This is a powerful memoir which has a lot to say about how we (particularly Canada as a resource extraction colony, but also a broader "we") treat the people whose physical labour runs parts of the economy we'd rather not think about. The experience turned out predictably badly for Beaton, but in looking back she maintained empathy for the people involved, keeping a clear on focus on what the context of oil sands work camps does to people.
Painful but also graceful take on wage slavery, toxic masculinity, rape, mental health, colonialism, ecocide, and more. Beaton convincingly and poignantly shows the many stages she experienced through multiple soul grinders: starting off as an innocent young art graduate desperate to pay off student loans, doing what she thought was necessary (and probably was), but paying prices noone should have to. Important reading, but the kind of people who need to read this, won't.