What I Read -- Recitatif

Prior to reading Recitatif, the only Toni Morrison I had read was The Bluest Eye -- and that was ages ago, either in high school or college.  I probably never would have even encountered Recitatif, except that it was one of Levar Burton's picks on his short story podcast, Levar Burton Reads.

Since one of our rules for our Postal Book Club is that our books are supposed to be 250 pages or fewer, this one seemed like a good pick for that, so I bought a copy and re-read the paper version. 

It is an astoundingly thoughtful work.  On my first listen, I identified (as the written introduction by Zadie Smith suggests most people do) with the first-person narrator.  

What makes that interesting is that the two main characters in the book -- the narrator Twyla and her friend Roberta -- are black and white, but there is no indication which one is which.  On my second go-through, since I was able to see the letters on the page, I made a point to pay special attention to the word choice that make it so difficult to discern which character is which.  Or, more to the point, that make my theories about the girls' identities flip-flop throughout the whole reading.  It was fascinating reading.