A straightforward graphic novel which is unshowy in its visual style. My main comment on this book is that it's light on story, simply coming across as the author's recollections of working at the same paper mill over three successive summers. Little is done to give the narrative structure. Intriguing themes are hinted at, though never explored. He's a teenager working in a factory, with all the reflection you'd expect from an adolescent.

The most interesting aspect of Factory Summers for me is its population, though these secondary characters struggle to penetrate further than the periphery of the narrative. For instance, Delisle introduces one worker with a pony tail who doesn't fit in and is mistreated, yet this question of conformity is almost immediately dropped. This episode takes its place in what would be more aptly described as a series of brief vignettes, very loosely connected together.

It is some of the more quirky characters who create more of an impression. Like our protagonist, these are the ones who dream of bright futures beyond the mill, those who's dreams stretch further than the finishing department where the worn down workers finish up as they wait for retirement. These young people with bright hopes are typically the seasonal workers who aim to become police officers, psychologists or animators. Some of these individuals manage to break free, some meet a tragic end, and for some they just disappear. Perhaps DeLisle is making a point about the promise of youth and the grey and uninspiring future which looms over them, from which they long to escape.

It's an unstructured nostalgic take on times gone by, with some potential to move the reader, yet likely to be quickly forgotten.

I love Guy Delisle's work, and his latest is no exception. This chronicles his work at a paper mill as a teenager and young adult over three summers as he's finishing high school and beginning college. Delisle takes you inside the mill, showing how it runs and introducing you to the other men he worked with. It's subtle - never too detailed and well laid-out so it's easy to follow - but still manages to touch on father-son relationships, labor movements, modernization, the environmental consequences of earlier mill activity and the monotony and hijinks of shift work.

I'm a huge fan of Delisle's work and while this one wasn't quite as long or detailed as some of the books I really enjoyed the insights of Quebec, before reading this I had no idea that it was so unusual to hear an anglophone or that you could grow up in Canada completely French.
I'm a printer's daughter and much of the factory layout, noise, heat & danger felt very familiar, as did the shadowing of how computerisation was going to change the landscape.