Toni Morrison

I really wanted to write a post about Toni Morrison, because since I discovered her I decided that everyone should know and love her.

First the short short short version, for those who don’t know her: she was an African-American writer who won the Nobel prize in literature in 1993. I won’t tell her life story, since you can just look for it online, but I’d like to talk about her works, the ones I read at least.

Although she wrote lots of stuff, I first got to know her seeing a quote of her Nobel acceptance speech. I liked the quote, so I went and read the whole speech because why not. Then I told myself I’d read some of her books and forgot about it. And this happened around last year, I think.

After some months (I think it was around the beginning of this year), I was trying to get into audiobooks again. Now, I’ll tell you that I absolutely can’t get into audiobooks. I love it in theory, but they make me so sleepy. I have a short attention span, so I end up getting distracted and when I realize again that I should be listening to it and not just hearing it in the background, I already have no idea what’s happening. The only exception is the Pride and Prejudice audiobook I listen to when I’m on my period, can’t get up, and want to relax, but only because I know the book basically by heart, so whenever I get distracted and pick it back up I know what’s happening anyway. It also helps that I need to focus on it to avoid thinking about how much I’m suffering.

Point is, I was trying to get into audiobooks again and found a podcast who narrated short stories, and I thought it was a good way to ease into it. And one of the stories was Recitatif by Toni Morrison. And well, it’s also been the only one I was able to listen to from start to finish. And it’s been absolutely amazing. I don’t need to say how great her writing style is (just think about the best you can imagine, that’s it), but I do want to talk about the story itself.

So, the point of the story is that the two girls who meet when they’re children and again multiple times during their lives are a white and a black girl. From the start, Toni Morrison gives various hints to who’s the white one and who’s the black one. The thing is that all she gives are hints though, and we never find out who’s who. And the hints can point to everything and nothing, either one of them could be white or black. It’s mind-blowing. I keep thinking back to it, thinking that maybe there’s a hint I didn’t get that would’ve been the solution, but there isn’t. And I also started reading articles about it in the hopes that someone smarter than me figured it out, but there’s nothing and as irritating as it is it’s also so so good. I loved it. I can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t even know how many times I talked about it to my friends trying to express my excitement. Probably too many. I don’t know why they still listen to me lol

So, after this I was officially a fan. And when I ordered a few books online I decided to buy one of hers too. I didn’t want to go right for her most famous work, because I was afraid it’d blind me to her other ones. Like, after reading Pride and Prejudice it took me a while to try out other Jane Austen’s works, and I wanted to avoid the same thing to happen again. So I found A Mercy and bought it.

I must first admit: when I started, I thought I’d drop it quite soon. The writing imitates the narrator’s way of talking, but it’s done so well that, before getting used to it, I had trouble enjoying it. After the first few pages I started appreciating it though and getting really into the story. And the different narrations gave more depth to the characters. There are various protagonists, and they all had such different personalities and stories. And the ending… Now, I won’t spoiler anything, but the ending is just as mind-blowing as the hints without solution in Recitatif.

I’m not really sure what else I can say without spoilering something. I think what I mean is simple: read Toni Morrison. It’s not only instructive and well-written, but also actually enjoyable. Not all great written works are enjoyable, I admit it. I love Jane Eyre, but I also wouldn’t read it if I was stressed out or I didn’t have much time, because admittedly it’s a f***g task and time-consuming and I wouldn’t always have the mental strength to follow what it says. But Toni Morrison works are actually a pleasure to read. There are so many small moments where I had to stop to take in what was happening – and sometimes, I admit, chuckled a bit, because the point of view she showed was so different from the ones I’m used to that it was amusing. And sometimes the character – a character that couldn’t have been more different from me – did something that sounded like something I could’ve done just that morning, and I couldn’t help but think that after all we’re all the same, all trying to protect ourselves from something small or big or from ourselves.

She’s just a genius, basically. Read Toni Morrison.

Did you guys read anything by Toni Morrison? What do you think? Let me know!