Book Discussion: Recitatif by Toni Morrison

Please join Park Slope Library for a discussion of Recitatif by Toni Morrison.

Kirkus Reviews says,

"The only short story ever written by the Nobel Prize–winning Morrison is also a thought experiment, illuminated here by Zadie Smith's close analysis of equal length.Twyla and Roberta are both 8 years old when they meet at a New York state institution where they are briefly housed—because, as Twyla tells us in the first sentence, “My mother danced all night and [Roberta’s] was sick.” They connect immediately despite the fact that “we looked like salt and pepper standing there and that’s what the other kids called us sometimes.” The girls run into each other several times later in life but never recapture their childhood connection. Among the wedges between them are their differing memories of an incident they witnessed involving a bow-legged “kitchen woman” named Maggie…

According to Morrison herself, this story is “an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial.” And as Smith adds, the “subject of the experiment is the reader.” On every page, Morrison teases said reader with details about the girls, their mothers, and their lots in life that seem like they could help solve the puzzle of which is Black and which is White, yet they never conclusively do so. And as the story is designed to show and Smith will make sure you see, that is not the most important thing.

A uniquely interesting and enlightening reading experience." 

 

Retrieved 05/11/2026, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/toni-morrison/recitatif/

 

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