We're not even a full month into the new year, and I've already allowed myself to get behind in writing about the books I've read. Last weekend, I finished Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau. This takes care of one of the non-country countries on my books from every country list: Martinique, which is an overseas department of France. Unlike some books I've read in this ongoing project, this felt like a very good book to count as representative of the country (if any book can be so). It covers Martinican history from the latter part of the slave era up until the late 20th century. Although it's about a different place, it felt to me like Texaco picked up where Explosion in a Cathedral left off. Particularly in the early part of the book, the uncertain status of slaves as the island waited for word of abolition from mainland France, reminded me of the regular theme of waiting for news to cross the ocean in Explosion in a Cathedral.
I struggled a bit with Texaco. I would occasionally find myself reading for pages only to realize I had drifted off and didn't know what had happened. The book got easier to read toward the second half when the voice switched from the narrator's father, Esternome, to the narrator herself, Marie-Sophie (as told to an amanuensis). It's hard to say what my favorite thing about Texaco was. Esternome and Marie-Sophie were both extremely compelling. The book is about losing everything you have and having to start again, over and over and over. One of the lovely ideas in the book is how maintaining a connection to the past, remembering the old ways of doing things, makes that starting over possible. Much of the hope in the book comes from knowing it's been done before. It's a kind of unusual idea of progress.
