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A review by elliya
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
5.0
I thought I had already read this, but I had only read the shorter PDF version.
Wow. Beaton is a gifted storyteller and her precise way of dipping in and out of narrative moments gives just enough insight into poignant and unsettling moments at the oil camps. She is somehow able to build complex characters through only a handful of frames, and to navigate incredibly heavy topics (environmental destruction! Generational unemployment! The destitution of poverty in rural Canada!) in a way that does not overwhelm the narrative. I am in awe of this powerful memoir.
Wow. Beaton is a gifted storyteller and her precise way of dipping in and out of narrative moments gives just enough insight into poignant and unsettling moments at the oil camps. She is somehow able to build complex characters through only a handful of frames, and to navigate incredibly heavy topics (environmental destruction! Generational unemployment! The destitution of poverty in rural Canada!) in a way that does not overwhelm the narrative. I am in awe of this powerful memoir.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Rape, Colonisation, and Addiction
Minor: Car accident