In Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life, the environmentalists Matt Hern and Am Johal take a road trip to the oilsands of northern Alberta. There they are dramatically reminded how “we are all implicated in the oil economy; every single one of us is bound up with petro-logics. We are all simultaneously witness, victim, and perpetrator of climate crimes.” This perspective characterizes Oil People, David Huebert’s debut novel, which returns to the region of southwestern Ontario that was the setting of his second book of short stories, Chemical Valley.
In 1987, Jade Armbruster, a girl on the verge of fourteen, begins to feel an inexplicable connection to her ancestor Clyde. A diehard oil man, he spent years of his life in search of bitumen, stomping “on his treadle over and over,” even when it seemed futile. “Mindless of the men who had abandoned him,” he drilled throughout the 1860s, until he found success. Ultimately, he fell to his...
Shazia Hafiz Ramji is the author of the poetry collection Port of Being. She divides her time between Toronto and London, where she’s writing a novel.
Advertisement
Advertisement