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Recitatif (1983)

by Toni Morrison(Favorite Author)

4.09 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

8484436802 (ISBN13: 9788484436805)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

unknown

review 1: Recitatif is about two children who are friends from childhood—one black and one white. The main characters’ lives intersect over many years. The prime point about the story is that Morrison never tells us which character is white and which is black. By doing so, she is intending to reveal the fact that human beings have tendency to categorize people immediately. This short story left me contemplating the use/usefulness of race in literature in a way that I hadn't considered before; race always seems to be present, so I've never had to look for it. I'm well aware of the author's experimentation with the absence of a clearly stated race in this text and that awareness left me searching for other indicators and characteristics that would reveal the race of the characters... more. The search was very revealing in terms of racial stereotypes. At different times in the novel I was convinced that I had "figured it out", only to change my mind a few passages later.Is race really that important to a character/story, person/life? I think it's a good time to get this story back in circulation. Race remains a relevant discussion and I believe people will be able to bring more to the dialogue after experiencing what it's like to search for and rely on race to provide context and critical information.
review 2: Participatory reading naked and solidified by Morrison's writing mastery. A plot paralleling the civic rights movement peeps into the lives of two women protagonists for five times and always catches them in a racially insecure situation, while not providing even a single clue which of these women is black and which is white. Omitting this information leaves a reader with some serious thinking about the motives and actions taken by each side (meaning those two girls) and probably also about racial stereotypes and prejudices both cunningly hidden behind the lines and cunningly revived from the reader's mind.In the end a scent of literary experiment rather remains over some well-thought-out-and-delivered message, but the story definitely deserves a readworthy status. less

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