The main narrative of the story is told through the voice of Marie-Sophie Laborieux, daughter of a freed slave, who recounts her family history from the beginning of the 1820s through to the late 20th century.
These small sections, which provide a historical context to the island of Martinique, are attributed to journals written by Marie-Sophie in the mid-1960s, as well as passages from a book called The Urban Planner's Notes to the World Scratcher.
"[4] In a Los Angeles Times review of the same year, Jonathan Levi said: "As heroic as the tales of Marie-Sophie, her papa, Esternome, and mama, Idomenee, it is Chamoiseau's chabin language that is the true heroine of 'Texaco'.
New York Times reviewer Leonard Michaels noted: "The city-planner Christ is meant, as one imagines, to be seen initially as the god of suffering, annihilating local customs and beliefs in exchange for abstract redemption...
Thus he mirrors the relationship between Christian France and the multiracial, multilingual descendants of black slaves, who have fashioned a sizable part of their identity out of the manner, traits and blood of their oppressors.