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Download high-resolution image Look inside

Recitatif

A Story

Author Toni Morrison
Look inside
Large Print
$18.00 US
Diversified | Random House Large Print
On sale Mar 01, 2022 | 128 Pages | 978-0-593-55664-1
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  • Student Success and Career Development > Student Success > First-Year Experience
  • About
  • Author
A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Toni Morrison.

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 masterful 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.
TONI MORRISON is the author of eleven novels and three essay collections. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019. View titles by Toni Morrison

About

A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Toni Morrison.

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 masterful 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.

Author

TONI MORRISON is the author of eleven novels and three essay collections. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019. View titles by Toni Morrison

Additional formats

  • Recitatif
    Recitatif
    A Story
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-593-31503-3
    $16.00 US
    Hardcover
    Knopf
    Feb 01, 2022
  • Recitatif
    Recitatif
    A Story
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-593-31504-0
    $9.99 US
    Ebook
    Knopf
    Feb 01, 2022
  • Recitatif
    Recitatif
    A Story
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-593-46057-3
    $12.50 US
    Audiobook Download
    Random House Audio
    Feb 01, 2022
  • Recitatif
    Recitatif
    A Story
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-593-31503-3
    $16.00 US
    Hardcover
    Knopf
    Feb 01, 2022
  • Recitatif
    Recitatif
    A Story
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-593-31504-0
    $9.99 US
    Ebook
    Knopf
    Feb 01, 2022
  • Recitatif
    Recitatif
    A Story
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-593-46057-3
    $12.50 US
    Audiobook Download
    Random House Audio
    Feb 01, 2022

Other Books by this Author

  • The Source of Self-Regard
    The Source of Self-Regard
    Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
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    978-0-525-56279-5
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    Jan 14, 2020
  • The Measure of Our Lives
    The Measure of Our Lives
    A Gathering of Wisdom
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  • The Writer Before the Page
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  • Toni Morrison Box Set
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  • God Help the Child
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    Jan 26, 2016
  • Paradise
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  • Home
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    Jan 01, 2013
  • A Mercy
    A Mercy
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    978-0-307-27676-6
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    Aug 11, 2009
  • Paradise
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    978-0-307-57787-0
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    Mar 24, 2009
  • The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993
    The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-307-53896-3
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    Jan 16, 2009
  • The Dancing Mind
    The Dancing Mind
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    978-0-307-38809-4
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    Jul 24, 2007
  • The Bluest Eye
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    978-0-307-27844-9
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    May 08, 2007
  • Love
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    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-7847-9
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    Jan 04, 2005
  • Beloved
    Beloved
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-3341-6
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    Jun 08, 2004
  • Song of Solomon
    Song of Solomon
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    978-1-4000-3342-3
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    Jun 08, 2004
  • Sula
    Sula
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-3343-0
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    Vintage
    Jun 08, 2004
  • Tar Baby
    Tar Baby
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-3344-7
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    Jun 08, 2004
  • Jazz
    Jazz
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-7621-5
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    Jun 08, 2004
  • Birth of a Nation'hood
    Birth of a Nation'hood
    Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-679-75893-8
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    Pantheon
    Feb 04, 1997
  • Playing In The Dark
    Playing In The Dark
    Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-679-74542-6
    $15.00 US
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    Vintage
    Jul 27, 1993
  • Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power
    Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power
    Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-679-74145-9
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Pantheon
    Oct 06, 1992
  • The Source of Self-Regard
    The Source of Self-Regard
    Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-525-56279-5
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 14, 2020
  • The Measure of Our Lives
    The Measure of Our Lives
    A Gathering of Wisdom
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-525-65929-7
    $18.00 US
    Hardcover
    Knopf
    Dec 03, 2019
  • The Writer Before the Page
    The Writer Before the Page
    From The Source of Self-Regard
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-593-08217-1
    $0.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Oct 29, 2019
  • Toni Morrison Box Set
    Toni Morrison Box Set
    The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-593-08223-2
    $35.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Oct 29, 2019
  • God Help the Child
    God Help the Child
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-307-74092-2
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 26, 2016
  • Paradise
    Paradise
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-8041-6988-2
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 11, 2014
  • Home
    Home
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-307-74091-5
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 01, 2013
  • A Mercy
    A Mercy
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-307-27676-6
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Aug 11, 2009
  • Paradise
    Paradise
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-307-57787-0
    $15.00 US
    Audiobook Download
    Random House Audio
    Mar 24, 2009
  • The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993
    The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-307-53896-3
    $8.99 US
    Ebook
    Knopf
    Jan 16, 2009
  • The Dancing Mind
    The Dancing Mind
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-307-38809-4
    $9.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    Jul 24, 2007
  • The Bluest Eye
    The Bluest Eye
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-307-27844-9
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    May 08, 2007
  • Love
    Love
    A Novel
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-7847-9
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jan 04, 2005
  • Beloved
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    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-3341-6
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 08, 2004
  • Song of Solomon
    Song of Solomon
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-3342-3
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 08, 2004
  • Sula
    Sula
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-3343-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 08, 2004
  • Tar Baby
    Tar Baby
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-3344-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 08, 2004
  • Jazz
    Jazz
    Toni Morrison
    978-1-4000-7621-5
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jun 08, 2004
  • Birth of a Nation'hood
    Birth of a Nation'hood
    Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-679-75893-8
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Pantheon
    Feb 04, 1997
  • Playing In The Dark
    Playing In The Dark
    Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-679-74542-6
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 27, 1993
  • Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power
    Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power
    Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality
    Toni Morrison
    978-0-679-74145-9
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Pantheon
    Oct 06, 1992
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