Name: Lindy's review of Recitatif by Toni Morrison
Item: Recitatif
Rating: 4
Author: Lindy

Toni Morrison

A beautiful, arresting story by the legendary Toni Morrison—the only short story Morrison ever wrote—about race and the relationships that shape us, in a stand-alone Knopf Canada hardcover, with an introduction by Zadie Smith. In this 1983 short story, as timely now as it was then, 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 as girls, like “salt and pepper,” they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, the two women are, like it or not, still held by the deep bond their shared experience forged between them. Described by Zadie Smith as a “work of genius,” Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? 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.” Carrying within its short span the complexity and richness of a novel, moving effortlessly through time, Recitatif is a masterful look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and how perceptions are made tangible by reality. Testament to Morrison’s incomparable humanity and wisdom, this story is a gift to readers in these changing times.

A Story

Recitatif

'Toni Morrison was the lodestar who inspired us' Bernadine Evaristo Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old, when they were thrown together as roommates in a girls' shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only to meet again later at a diner, a grocery store and then at a protest. The two women are seemingly at opposite ends of every problem but, despite their conflict, the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them is undeniable. Recitatif keeps Twyla's and Roberta's races ambiguous throughout the story. 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? This story is a masterful exploration of what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, of race and the relationships that shape our lives. Now with a new introduction by Zadie Smith, it is as radically compelling and relevant today as it was when first written nearly forty years ago. 'Toni Morrison is the greatest chronicler of the American experience that we have ever known' Tayari Jones 'Her work is an act of giving her community back to itself, so that people - African-Americans but the diaspora as well - can see and witness themselves' Diana Evans

Hannah VG

Das Leben ist komplex, es wird begriffich von binären Strukturen dominiert, kann aber nie zur Gänze von ihnen erfasst werden.

Wir müssen Differenz nicht immerzu bewerten, kategorisieren oder kriminalisieren. Wir brauchen sie auch nicht persönlich zu nehmen. Wir können sie einfach stehen lassen. Oder ein tiefgreifendes Interesse an ihr entwickeln.

Lindy

Such a fascinating read. The introduction is good, but better read as an afterword. It goes over so much of the plot it reads like an analytical summary. 

Bethany Jenkins

A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Toni Morrison, in a stand-alone Knopf hardcover for the first time, with an introduction by Zadie Smith. 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.

Very cute short story, I feel like it has a quite accurate description of female friendships 

Ester Waclavova

Maureen

"A pretty mother on earth is better than a beautiful dead one in the sky even if she did leave you all alone to go dancing."

***

Constructions of beauty, violence, and identity in Recitatif:

Despite Morrison’s deliberate decision to keep the races of her two female characters ambiguous, this short story is worth examining, for it touches upon the similar burden of conformity to the Eurocentric ideal. Twyla and Roberta’ are eight-year-old girls who form a close bond at the shelter based on their absent mothers. The two are bullied by the older “gar girls” (Morrison 253), who are said to wear “lipstick and eyebrow pencil ... while [watching] TV" (244). Such description implies the girls’ conformity to the beauty ideals promoted in mass media. However, despite their menacing demeanors, Twyla recalls them being runaways. Morris explains this was all a facade—being victims themselves, the gar girls enacted violence on Twyla and Roberta to reclaim their lost agency (166). Some years later, when Twyla and Roberta met again, the former was shocked to discover the latter’s radical change in appearance, describing how “her huge hair was sleek now” (Morrison 252), and her fancy outfit and makeup “made the big girls look like nuns” (249).

Through her fiction, Morrison sheds light on the marginalization of Black women in contemporary American society. She effectively problematizes the everyday reality of beauty standards that women face by going one step further to argue that the women of her community are more vulnerable to the advertisements disseminated through mass media as they cultivate feelings of inferiority due to their inability to conform to the Eurocentric ideal. The shared trauma of her female characters proves how such feelings eventually culminate in self-hatred following the disillusionment with the imposition of these far-fetched white beauty standards. Unfortunately, this lived reality is something African American women still contend with to this day.
Seemingly, Roberta had fallen into the rabbit hole of consumerism in attempts to alter her appearance to fit the conventional ideal as she grew older. Comparably, Twyla’s preoccupation with beauty and keeping up appearances reflects in her sharp observations of other women’s outfits; however, a solid example is when she professes early on that “a pretty mother on earth is better than a beautiful dead one in the sky even if she did leave you all alone to go dancing” (Morrison 247). It implies that Twyla could make peace with a repeatedly absent mother so long as the latter showed up during moments that mattered, i.e., public events, like a chapel visit where the other girls would see her beautiful mother. Collectively, the women in “Recitatif” failed to ignore the beauty standards perpetuated by mass media—which, in turn, caused them to express disapproval at those who depart from conventional norms.

perfect short story. toni morrison does it again.

violeta

farah farooq

shoutout to my Eng 113 Rainbows of Voices, Caucasian cis Professor for including this in the reading list

Charlsy Sekyere

⭐️3

An enjoyable short story that had me captivated throughout. Loved the execution of the short story which is described 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". 

My rating is mostly based on how short the short story itself is. Honestly, I would have liked just a couple of more pages since I didn't particularly like the ambiguous ending. Even so, I look forward to reading more from Toni Morrison in the near future.

Lindy &
Recitatif by Toni Morrison

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