Recitatif

A Story

By: Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith - introduction

Narrated by: Zadie Smith, Bahni Turpin

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Nobel Prize winner. With an introduction by Zadie Smith

“A puzzle of a story, then—a game.... When [Morrison] called Recitatif an ‘experiment’ she meant it. The subject of the experiment is the reader.” —Zadie Smith, award-winning, best-selling author of White Teeth

In this 1983 short story—the only short story Morrison ever wrote—we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other's throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

Another work of genius by this masterly writer, Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. Morrison herself described Recitatif, a story which will keep readers thinking and discussing for years to come, as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?

A remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and how perceptions are made tangible by reality, Recitatif is a gift to readers in these changing times.

Thought Provoking Short Story

This is Toni Morrison's only short story and my first time reading her. This is a thought-provoking story about two girls, Twyla and Roberta, who meet at the age of eight at a shelter/orphanage and then run into each other regularly throughout their lives. All we know about the girls is that one is white and one is black but the way Morrison writes the story their race is indeterminable, at least to me.

The Audible book featured an introduction by Zadie Smith which thankfully didn't spoil the book like introductions can sometimes do. The introduction added some background and context to the story which primed me for the book but I thought it was way to long (as long as the story) and repetitive.

Undetermined

That you couldn’t distinguish whether Twyla was Black or Roberta was white or vice versa. I thought this was a great short story with great detail. When I thought the ending would give more depth it was still not determined.

A perfect puzzle

Morrison created the perfect puzzle, where the riddle itself isn't the point, but rather the path getting there.

So Glad I Found This!

This book was simply mind altering. From the phenomenal introduction that set us squarely in our racial bias to the book itself where I had to check that same racial bias at the door…I am a better person for it! I will take this to not my DEIA and Implicit Bias practice with glee!

Good story

I love this book! It amazing characters and story lines. It good to read. B