Two small books for Saturday

Recitatif ~ by Toni Morrison, 1983, (introduction by Zadie Smith, 2022), fiction, 83 pages, 9/10

Toni Morrison called this story about race and the relationships that shape us through life "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?

In this 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 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.

My Evil Mother ~ by Margaret Atwood, 2022, fiction (Canada), 32 pages, 8/10

 Life is hard enough for a teenage girl in 1950s suburbia without having a mother who may — or may not — be a witch.  A single mother at that.  Sure, she fits in with her starched dresses, string of pearls, and floral aprons.  Then there are the hushed and mystical consultations with neighborhood women in distress.  The unsavory, mysterious plants in the flower beds.  The divined warning to steer clear of a boyfriend whose fate is certainly doomed.  But as the daughter of this bewitching homemaker comes of age and her mother’s claims become more and more outlandish, she questions everything she once took for granted.