Texaco

This is quite a story from Martinique during slavery to thd creation of a shanty town on the edge of "L'En-ville"... the story told to begin with of Esternome Laborieux and then his daughter Marie-Sophie. Reminiscent of Marquez (One Hundred Years) without the magic realism the book seethes with history event characters and imagination. It is undeniably a brilliant achievement characterised by writing of sustained and burning lyricism.It is possible to criticise. Chamoiseau is in exalted mode and his tale may appear overly-exalted, even romanticised (but we are in the presence of a "roman")... I found after the death of Esternome and even before the novel settled into a mode of "rote" storytelling... To some readers the novel may seem overlong and overwritten. And the language with its Creole layers (its literary essence nonetheless) is certainly a challenge even to the practised French-language reader.However, by any standards this is a stunningly sustained literary creation, full of storytelling invention and miraculous lyricism. And full too of Chamoiseau's love of his characters (a great quality in any writer) and the world of Texaco, his symbol of the construction of a new vibrant vital and enduring Creole culture.

Book advertised as English and French edition. It's French only. (I used to read French but can't anymore.