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Title details for Recitatif by Toni Morrison - Available

Recitatif

A Story

by Toni Morrison
Zadie Smith
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available
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—for the first time in a beautifully produced stand-alone edition, 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 1, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593460580
      • File size: 54741 KB
      • Duration: 01:54:02

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This new audio version of Toni Morrison's only short story highlights the brilliance of three Black women: Morrison, obviously; Zadie Smith, who reads her own thoughtful and moving introduction with sparkling curiosity; and narrator Bahni Turpin, whose vocal talents are on full display. The story, which Morrison wrote in 1980 and described as an "experiment," follows two characters from their girlhood at a state institution into their adult lives. Their races are left deliberately ambiguous. One is Black, and one white, but listeners are left guessing which is which. Turpin beautifully characterizes both women, capturing the deftness of Morrison's prose. It's fitting that such a unique story, written by one of America's greatest writers, is brought to life by one of the most gifted narrators working today. L.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 1, 2022

      Nobel Laureate Morrison's only short story, originally published in 1983, is now available as a stand-alone edition with an insightful introduction by novelist Zadie Smith. The audio is sensitively rendered by consummate narrator, Bahni Turpin. The story follows two girls, Twyla and Roberta, who first meet at a state institution when they are children, and whose lives continue to intersect over the ensuing decades. Morrison described this story as an "experiment," for, while listeners know that one of the girls is Black, and the other is white, Morrison refuses to say which is which. As Smith points out in her introduction, Morrison's "puzzle of a story, then a game" forces listeners to confront their own carefully guarded conceptions of race, as they constantly search for clues to the girls' racial identities, only to ask themselves why they are so intent on knowing. Turpin's skillful narration beautifully complements Morrison's words. With fluidity and grace, Turpin captures the quicksilver turns of this story, seamlessly communicating the many emotions--affection, understanding, regret, and anger--that make this story so much more than it seems. VERDICT This powerful and important production is not to be missed.--Sarah Hashimoto

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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