These scenes hum with life, and many would make a fine evocation of any workplace. Colleagues, by turns cheerful, brusque, resigned, crass, sweet or despairing, ease in and out of focus as Katie changes jobs, moves sites and struggles to fit in. “Cheap labour,” explains Beaton, “where booming industry demanded it.” She takes time to show the everyday: the grumbling, the pen-pushing, strange quirks, embarrassment, camaraderie, boredom and discomfort. It’s a soul-sapping environment, staffed mostly by out-of-state workers who, like the land, are a resource to be exploited.
But Katie will spend most of her time indoors, working long hours in the institutional corridors and prefab cabins that squat on this scarred wilderness. Gargantuan vehicles tear at the earth, leaving watery pits and rubble in their wake. Katie first rolls in, hunched and groggy on a pre-dawn bus, to see a shock of towers, flames and fumes blaring out of the darkness. Illustration: Kate Beatonĭucks builds its world with unhurried, immersive naturalism. Beaton’s Alberta is a world of frozen land and massive trucks.
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