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Texaco: A Novel by Patrick Chamoiseau
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Texaco: A Novel (edition 1998)

by Patrick Chamoiseau

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6511235,421 (3.88)157
"Chamoiseau is a writer who has the sophistication of the modern novelist, and it is from that position (as an heir of Joyce and Kafka) that he holds out his hand to the oral prehistory of literature." --Milan Kundera Of black Martinican provenance, Patrick Chamoiseau gives us Texaco (winner of the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary prize), an international literary achievement, tracing one hundred and fifty years of post-slavery Caribbean history: a novel that is as much about self-affirmation engendered by memory as it is about a quest for the adequacy of its own form. In a narrative composed of short sequences, each recounting episodes or developments of moment, and interspersed with extracts from fictive notebooks and from statements by an urban planner, Marie-Sophie Laborieux, the saucy, aging daughter of a slave affranchised by his master, tells the story of the tormented foundation of her people's identity. The shantytown established by Marie-Sophie is menaced from without by hostile landowners and from within by the volatility of its own provisional state. Hers is a brilliant polyphonic rendering of individual stories informed by rhythmic orality and subversive humor that shape a collective experience. A joyous affirmation of literature that brings to mind Boccaccio, La Fontaine, Lewis Carroll, Montaigne, Rabelais, and Joyce, Texaco is a work of rare power and ambition, a masterpiece.… (more)
Member:AmericanCornerSkopje
Title:Texaco: A Novel
Authors:Patrick Chamoiseau
Info:Vintage (1998), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 416 pages
Collections:Your library
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Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau

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» See also 157 mentions

English (10)  Dutch (1)  French (1)  All languages (12)
Showing 1-5 of 10 (next | show all)
I enjoyed the history of Martinique, the magical realism, and the theme of language as a key to identity (original was a mix of French and Creole). But this was slow and I didn't feel compelled to return to it. ( )
  mmcrawford | Dec 5, 2023 |
Like most whypipo, I knew very little about the history of Martinique. This author brings the history of this tiny island to life. Starting in the 1700s, when bekes (white) owned humans kidnapped, or born, into slavery, and forced them with overseer whips to work in their Fields, their houses, make babies with them, through the 1800s, when Abolition created a false freedom, to the fight for keeping their tiny hutches in their shantytowns, Chamoiseau shares the word of the Storyteller, who stood in front and took blow after blow for the right to exist. ( )
  burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 |
This jewel was found in an Oxfam in Reading during the winter of 2004. Fuzzy strands of reviews past crackled in my dozy brain as I hefted it. The hunch proved correct and I was overwhelmed.

I have since bought another of his texts but have yet to take the plunge. Perhaps a reread of Texaco is due? ( )
  jonfaith | Feb 22, 2019 |
This sweeping saga traces one hundred and fifty years of Martinique history. Mostly told from the point of view of Marie-Sophie Laborieux, the daughter of a former slave, texaco is the story of a shantytown of the same name besieged from every angle. From within, the society is wrathful and distrusting. From without everyone is a stranger. The language is mystical but I found my mind wandering as a result.
As I mentioned earlier, I tried reading this once before and failed. No different this time around. ( )
  SeriousGrace | Oct 17, 2016 |
I couldn't get through this. It's written in a very distant tense- to evoke an oral storytelling tradition, I think. I felt like I was reading through the wrong end of a telescope, if that makes any sense, and I never wanted to pick it up to read it so I gave up after 150 pages or so. ( )
  ltfitch1 | Jun 5, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 10 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (4 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Chamoiseau, Patrickprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Altena, Ernst vanTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nationaal Centrum voor Ontwikkelingssamenwe… BelgiëUitgeversecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
NOVIB, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Internationale Ontwikkelingssamenwe…Uitgeversecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Réjouis, Rose-MyriamTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vinokurov, ValTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
What will the scribe recall, who through herself already tells of the stern destiny of all these women forever condemned to pregnancies, who, in order to foresee the day's weather and figure out what labors to take on, are expert at deciphering the prophecies of the wind, of dusk, or of the misty halo which sometimes seems to ooze out of the moon; these women who, while fighting -- as much as men -- to survive, made what is known as a fatherland, and whome calendars reduce to a few noisy holidays, to a vainglory after which streets are named?
--Hector Bianciotti
The city was the sanctuary of the word, of the gester and the geste, of struggle.

You, game ... are nothing but a city-blackman: that's where you have to speak from! ...
--Édouard Glissant
Dedication
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Upon his entrance into Texaco, the Christ was hit by a stone -- an aggression that surprised no one.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

"Chamoiseau is a writer who has the sophistication of the modern novelist, and it is from that position (as an heir of Joyce and Kafka) that he holds out his hand to the oral prehistory of literature." --Milan Kundera Of black Martinican provenance, Patrick Chamoiseau gives us Texaco (winner of the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary prize), an international literary achievement, tracing one hundred and fifty years of post-slavery Caribbean history: a novel that is as much about self-affirmation engendered by memory as it is about a quest for the adequacy of its own form. In a narrative composed of short sequences, each recounting episodes or developments of moment, and interspersed with extracts from fictive notebooks and from statements by an urban planner, Marie-Sophie Laborieux, the saucy, aging daughter of a slave affranchised by his master, tells the story of the tormented foundation of her people's identity. The shantytown established by Marie-Sophie is menaced from without by hostile landowners and from within by the volatility of its own provisional state. Hers is a brilliant polyphonic rendering of individual stories informed by rhythmic orality and subversive humor that shape a collective experience. A joyous affirmation of literature that brings to mind Boccaccio, La Fontaine, Lewis Carroll, Montaigne, Rabelais, and Joyce, Texaco is a work of rare power and ambition, a masterpiece.

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