Texaco"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. |
Contents
TRANSLATORS NOTE ix | 3 |
The Christs coming according to Iréné 11The Christs coming according | 25 |
BOOK | 31 |
Copyright | |
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Adrienne Carmélite Lapidaille affranchis Aimé Césaire Alcibiade alizé Arcadius asbestos asked Basile beautiful became began béké Béké's belly Big Hutch blackgirl blackmen Bosses breadfruit brought called Carib Césaire chabin City City's coolie crate wood Creole Doum dreams Ester Esternome Esternome's everything eyes fellow felt Fort-de-France France French garden Gaulle Gros-Joseph hand head heart hills Idoménée Iréné Julot knew land slaves leave lived logwood Lonyon looked Mano Castrador Marie-Clémence MARIE-SOPHIE LABORIEUX maroons Martinique memory Mentoh milatoes Monsieur Alcibiade Morne Abélard mulattoes Nelta never night Ninon NOTEBOOK Noutéka papa Esternome Papa Totone plantation Quarter Saint-Pierre Sainte-Thérèse Savanna SCHELCHER LIBRARY seemed seyaress shadow sharks silence skin smell soon sweet tell Texaco things thought Ti-Cirique took town council tree turned urban planner voice walked wanted wind woman WORD SCRATCHER