04 May / Recitatif by Toni Morrison [in Booklist]
*STARRED REVIEW
In addition to 11 novels, Novel Prize-winning Toni Morrison wrote this “one and only short story” in 1980, collected in 1983’s Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women, edited by Amiri and Amina Baraka. Posthumously published as a standalone volume, the story is paired with lauded Zadie Smith’s insightful, appreciative introduction. The audio is a gorgeously dual-voiced production, with Smith elegantly reciting her writing and brilliantly versatile Bahni Turpin delivering the story.
Please, for new audiences, start with the second track/half.
To experience “Recitatif” directly without outside explication, regardless of Smith’s erudition, is truly a literary gift. Morrison described her exquisitely multi-layered short 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.”
Twyla, who narrates, and Roberta are eight-year-olds placed in an institution because Twyla’s “mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” For four months, the girls are inseparable, until their lives continue away from each other. They meet again three times, each more confrontation than connection.
Turpin showcases her prodigious range, seamlessly convincing as young girls, young women, married mothers, and angry activists. After personal contemplations, to then return to the beginning to have Smith share her elucidations should be revelatory.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, April 15, 2022
Readers: Adult
Published: 1983 (collected in anthology), 2022 (standalone edition)