En cours de chargement...
Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.
Written in 1980 and anthologized in a number of collections, this is the first time Recitatif is being published as a stand-alone hardcover. In the story, Twyla's and Roberta's races remain ambiguous. 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 ? Morrison herself described this story 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 ? " Recitatif is a remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and about how perceptions are made tangible by reality.
Percutant
Une nouvelle, puis une post-face de même longueur. Cet ouvrage, aussi court que percutant, met à mal nos certitudes et les a-priori que nous pouvions penser avoir surmontés. Quels sont les attributs de la pauvreté, de la richesse ? de la couleur de peau ? Comment ceux-ci définissent-ils une personne ?
Sous les apparences d'une histoire d'une grande simplicité, Toni Morrison nous emmène dans les eaux troubles des souvenirs. Et Zadie Smith, elle-même écrivaine réputée, nous livre une explication de texte qui éclaire le lecteur tout en faisant confiance à son intelligence.
Un très très grand plaisir de lecture !