Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

This is a beautiful, thoughtful, understated graphic memoir that starts and finishes almost exactly how you would expect it to go, and yet it is compelling, magical in a bleak way, and altogether worth reading. The story begins in a community where every way for people to make money has left, so its youth have reluctantly followed suit. The goal is to make enough money to get back, but it almost never happens. The story resonates in the United States, but the author is from Cape Breton Island, on Canada’s eastern shore, where coal was once king; the industry’s sinking fortunes are also stripping the financial hopes of Nova Scotians and nearby Newfoundlanders. She has crushing student debt, and decides to go for the big money in the oil sands. For women who migrate to work in the bitumen-rich tar sands of northern Alberta, there were many ways for the gritty environment to turn toxic. This has always been true, of course, and the only thing unique is in the telling. She depicts the experience of being far outnumbered by men, dealing with the leering attentions of some male co-workers, and the loneliness and isolation of these stimulus deprived environments so well. It is less gruesome than it might be, and more thoughtful than I expected. I am not well read when it comes to graphic novels, but I loved this one.