Events › The Scoop: Book Club

March is Women's History Month. What better way to celebrate than reading Toni Morrison?! In March, we will be reading and discussing "Recitatif" by Toni Morrison. "Recitatif" is the first and only short story published by Toni Morrison. It was initially published in 1983 in Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women. 

In this short story 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?

We will meet in-person at FoMu Ice Cream (655 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02118) at 2:00 pm for an hour-long discussion. Purchases are encouraged but not required. Our group meets on the second Tuesday each month.

You can pick up a physical copy of the book at the Borrower Services desk at the Central Library in Copley Square or the Roxbury Branch. If interested in joining, please email southend@bpl.org or call 617-442-6186.

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