Pipeline Diaries

PapaWriz 1 story

Summary

`Ryan Wiersma turns his remarkable experiences in the pipeline world of Alberta into a haunting, often sad, and consistently hilarious story of what really happens out on the rigs. After purchasing a piece of land in Ecuador, a brash and introspective worker needs to finish one more season in the patch before he can build a house and lay on the beach while drinking Pina Coladas in the sun. The pipeline world of the Canadian prairies is home to the kind of mad, crazy and wild characters that thrive in the lawlessness it provides, like Micky Makoy with his whore loving beer benders, Booby Mac and the angry pain of his divorce, and the destructive forces and people that only oil and gas can attract and, at times, even create. But beyond the excess, the most important element of the pipeline are the bonds and brotherhood created in the bitter, cold, and intense environment and it’s these connections that the narrator needs to rescue him. ` In an endlessly inventive, poetic, tender, and funny prose, Ryan Wiersma lays bare the truth of the depression and brotherhood the pipeline inspires. Even in the hard, cruel world of the patch, there is the inevitable weakness of the human heart. With oil as their brick, beer as their cement, the boys take care of the boys. Above all, remember the code of the pipeline: You Can’t Be A Pussy And A Pipeliner.