Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
"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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The Stranger
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Never Let Me Go
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The Road
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Beloved
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The Bluest Eye
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In Cold Blood
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Lolita
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The Year of Magical Thinking
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Blood Meridian
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The Remains of the Day
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All the Pretty Horses
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Love in the Time of Cholera
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Song of Solomon
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The Fire Next Time
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Klara and the Sun: A GMA Book Club Pick
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No Country for Old Men
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Sula
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As I Lay Dying
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Norwegian Wood
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Kafka on the Shore
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Giovanni's Room
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Independent People
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Perfume
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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
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No Exit and Three Other Plays
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A Fine Balance
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The Plague
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The Sound and the Fury
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The Woman Warrior
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1Q84
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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
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Ulysses
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White Teeth
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The English Patient
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Go Tell It on the Mountain
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The Crossing
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The Master and Margarita
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If Beale Street Could Talk
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Possession
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The Fall
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold
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Jazz
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Absalom, Absalom!
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Written on the Body
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The Buried Giant
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The Plot Against America
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Breakfast at Tiffany's
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The Razor's Edge
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American Pastoral
Patrick Chamoiseau is the author of Texaco, a New York Times Notable Book that won the Prix Goncourt, as well as Creole Folktales and other works. He is a resident of Martinique.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780679751755 |
| ISBN 10 | 0679751750 |
| Title | Texaco |
| Author | Patrick Chamoiseau |
| Series | Vintage International |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Random House USA Inc |
| Year published | 1998-02-24 |
| Number of pages | 416 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |