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serendipitysbooks's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Texaco was a rich read, but a challenging one. It covers 150 years of the history of Texaco, a poor suburb/shantytown just outside the capital of Martinique, and of the narrator’s family. But the story is told in a non-linear fashion, features multiple points of view, magical realism and spirituality, and includes many short sections including excerpts from letters and journals which don’t always immediately connect. It explores themes like race, slavery, colonisation, and memory and asks, among other things, who gets to tell their story and how, who gets to maintain their culture. In so doing it makes some important points about language. I liked the way sections of the book were named for the predominant building material used at the time such as The Age of Straw and The Age of Asbestos. The heavy religious overtones weren’t to my personal taste though. This is a book that would benefit from a reread and/or being read and discussed with others.
misspalah's review against another edition
3.0
When Monsieur Alcibiade examined what he called the fundamental problem of the "relations between newly founded societies in the colonies and the distant Mother Fatherland," I began to float in sweet vertigo. His French, his sharp accent, his flowery sentences, worked like a little tune to which I succumbed without even trying to understand or reflect. He said, I think, that the same laws could not possibly apply to all colonies, because their development, differ. ent races, geographic situation, degree of civilization were not uni-form. If Reunion, the Antilles, and Guyana are now mature societies, the work of colonization being nearly complete, New Cale-donia, Senegal, Tonkin are barely emerging from the barbarian straitjacket. Others like Sudan, Madagascar, or the Congo carry barely a hint of light inside their profound night. One therefore should take the evolution of each one into account and legislate ac-cordingly. The colonies' progress toward the social organization of European countries demands time, gentlemen, measure, prudence, in a word, a colonial policy . ..! Everyone approved, and, anxious not to show my inability to understand these beautiful words, I approved more fervently than anyone.
- Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
.
.
Too disjointed for my liking – If I remember correctly, it possessed 4 voices which is the main narrator, the excerpt that came from the main narrator’s father, the reflection that may or may not belonged to narrator and her father and some outsiders (the author is one of them) that were implicated in the story. Thus, imagined my confusion of trying to catch up with all the details. I usually love translated literature but this time, I believe it was not for me. Despite consisted of 200 years of multigenerational saga (which again, I usually adored) But this time, I was not in for the ride. Those 200 years were comprised in two parts of a book, 1 is The Anunciation and the second one is Around Fort-De-France. The book also has made many references that reflect a particular time: The Age of Straw (1823 – 1902); The Age of Crate Wood (1903 – 1945); The Age of Asbestos (1946 – 1960); and The Age of Concrete (1961 – 1980). The prose is grandiose, and I can see that the translator has done their best to accommodate readers in understanding this masterpiece (including all the relevant footnotes and despite heavily used of Creole French in the original text). Unfortunately, it was challenging for me to follow. I do not know whether my reading mood was just not there or the way it was written was intentionally hard to follow. However, this book has been dubbed as one of the best post-colonial literatures among the others and Patrick Chaomoiseau might got his Nobel prize in literature one day. In the beginning, we were introduced to the main narrator named ‘Marie Sophie-Laborieux’. Her role in the novel was mainly to highlight the family history and focused specifically on the creole people that ended up in Fort-de-France, Martinique and has been living there for many decades. There are too many stories to tell considering that It has many voices in the novel but what stood out the most is the plight of colored people living there trying to maintain their culture and their land heritage. Changes is inevitable as they are considered French territory hence whatever happened in France will have affected them as well. The trace of generation somehow due to the enslavement of their African ancestors is hinted heavily in the writing and after years of liberation, integration and mixing among whites and mixed race, the identity and language of Creole is solidified. Overall, what I believe Patrick Chamoiseau tried to impart in the novel is the impact of colonialism and how the past haunted the current generation, how oppression was done based on race and skin color, colorism among the community that lived in the Fort-de-France and even the stark differences of the class that somewhat demonstrated the reality and history of Martinique to certain extent. To truly enjoy this book, I reckoned familiarity with the history of the French Caribbean is important as well, as is some understanding of Creole language and culture.
.
P/s : If you are not a fan of Salman Rushdie’s writing , then this is definitely not for you.
- Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
.
.
Too disjointed for my liking – If I remember correctly, it possessed 4 voices which is the main narrator, the excerpt that came from the main narrator’s father, the reflection that may or may not belonged to narrator and her father and some outsiders (the author is one of them) that were implicated in the story. Thus, imagined my confusion of trying to catch up with all the details. I usually love translated literature but this time, I believe it was not for me. Despite consisted of 200 years of multigenerational saga (which again, I usually adored) But this time, I was not in for the ride. Those 200 years were comprised in two parts of a book, 1 is The Anunciation and the second one is Around Fort-De-France. The book also has made many references that reflect a particular time: The Age of Straw (1823 – 1902); The Age of Crate Wood (1903 – 1945); The Age of Asbestos (1946 – 1960); and The Age of Concrete (1961 – 1980). The prose is grandiose, and I can see that the translator has done their best to accommodate readers in understanding this masterpiece (including all the relevant footnotes and despite heavily used of Creole French in the original text). Unfortunately, it was challenging for me to follow. I do not know whether my reading mood was just not there or the way it was written was intentionally hard to follow. However, this book has been dubbed as one of the best post-colonial literatures among the others and Patrick Chaomoiseau might got his Nobel prize in literature one day. In the beginning, we were introduced to the main narrator named ‘Marie Sophie-Laborieux’. Her role in the novel was mainly to highlight the family history and focused specifically on the creole people that ended up in Fort-de-France, Martinique and has been living there for many decades. There are too many stories to tell considering that It has many voices in the novel but what stood out the most is the plight of colored people living there trying to maintain their culture and their land heritage. Changes is inevitable as they are considered French territory hence whatever happened in France will have affected them as well. The trace of generation somehow due to the enslavement of their African ancestors is hinted heavily in the writing and after years of liberation, integration and mixing among whites and mixed race, the identity and language of Creole is solidified. Overall, what I believe Patrick Chamoiseau tried to impart in the novel is the impact of colonialism and how the past haunted the current generation, how oppression was done based on race and skin color, colorism among the community that lived in the Fort-de-France and even the stark differences of the class that somewhat demonstrated the reality and history of Martinique to certain extent. To truly enjoy this book, I reckoned familiarity with the history of the French Caribbean is important as well, as is some understanding of Creole language and culture.
.
P/s : If you are not a fan of Salman Rushdie’s writing , then this is definitely not for you.
motifenjoyer's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
4.0
"... the Creole city speaks a new language in secret and no longer fears Babel... The Creole city returns to the urban planner, who would like to ignore it, the roots of a new identity: multilingual, multiracial, multihistorical, open, sensible to the world's diversity. Everything has changed."
lucie_legoupil's review against another edition
2.0
le temps que j'ai pris pour lire ce livre en dit long hqfeheova
calamity3jane's review against another edition
5.0
This convoluted maze of a novel, assigned for a class(obvio-po) is truly lovely. Set in Port-Au-Prince, it attempts in novel form to convey the complex creole being of the community. This experiment in linguistic and narrative possibility reads like surreal apocrypha. No small feat to attempt this one, but it will pull you in through inventive language and lovely prose.
dtcguo's review against another edition
3.0
This deserves a second try. There are so many artful metaphors and unanswered questions.
rdebner's review against another edition
4.0
What a mash-up of a story! By the time I got to the end, I'd completely forgotten that the book had started with the arrival of the city planner, and thus the ending came full circle. In order to tell the story of Texaco, the main narrator goes back to tell her father's story, which also tells the story of Martinique from that point forward. The book is a pleasure for anyone who: has read other Francophone Caribbean novels, doesn't need a purely linear plot line, and likes word play and creativity with language. While it is a complicated narrative, interspersing excerpts from Marie-Sophie's notebooks and commentary from the urban planner and the "word scratcher," it is an excellent story that attempts to reproduce the storytelling rhythms of a hybrid culture.
thebobsphere's review against another edition
4.0
Texaco begins in an epic way: A land contractor arrives in a Caribbean town called Texaco. Instantly not only is he hit by a rock but his arrival is told through four perspectives, including the narrator. A few pages onward and us readers find out that the contractor intends to raze Texaco as it is an eyesore. The narrator of the book then decides to relay the history of Texaco.
Judging by the first chapter the reader knows that this is going to be a big novel, and it is. Think of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude, except more readable and less confusing. Throughout the novel we see the beginnings of Texaco from it’s founder, a slave who is favoured among the landowners and manages to escape, befriend a carpenter and build a city to his daughter, the actual founder of Texaco and matriarch to the community. Destinies and characters weave in and out of the narrative but Texaco (the novel) ties up every single loose end into a tight story.
Obviously the novel is not as straightforward as that; race, the notion of slavery and complex relationships dominate Texaco alongside zombies, ghosts, magical musicians and more gentle hints of magical realism litter Texaco. By the end of the novel, the reader even gets a postscript written by the person who collected all the stories and notes about Texaco.
Despite the complexity of the book, it is readable even humorous in places and, more importantly, the translation is fluid ( in fact the translators state that they had to rewrite the book) I can totally understand why Texaco won the 1992 Prix Goncourt. Incidentally this reprinting is part of a new initiative form Granta Publishers to bring back more obscure and interesting texts in print. All I can say is that Texaco is definitely a classic that should not be missed.
Judging by the first chapter the reader knows that this is going to be a big novel, and it is. Think of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 100 Years of Solitude, except more readable and less confusing. Throughout the novel we see the beginnings of Texaco from it’s founder, a slave who is favoured among the landowners and manages to escape, befriend a carpenter and build a city to his daughter, the actual founder of Texaco and matriarch to the community. Destinies and characters weave in and out of the narrative but Texaco (the novel) ties up every single loose end into a tight story.
Obviously the novel is not as straightforward as that; race, the notion of slavery and complex relationships dominate Texaco alongside zombies, ghosts, magical musicians and more gentle hints of magical realism litter Texaco. By the end of the novel, the reader even gets a postscript written by the person who collected all the stories and notes about Texaco.
Despite the complexity of the book, it is readable even humorous in places and, more importantly, the translation is fluid ( in fact the translators state that they had to rewrite the book) I can totally understand why Texaco won the 1992 Prix Goncourt. Incidentally this reprinting is part of a new initiative form Granta Publishers to bring back more obscure and interesting texts in print. All I can say is that Texaco is definitely a classic that should not be missed.