Texaco
Patrick Chamoiseau
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars
3.90
· 10 ratings · 416 pages · Published: 03 Apr 1992
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.
Tagged as:
- historical 3
- historical fiction 3
- classics 3
- 20th century 3
- slavery 2
- literary fiction 2
- family 2
- protagonists of colour 2
- magical realism 1
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- book 1
- adult fiction 1