In 1980 Toni Morrison sat down to write her one and only short story, “Recitatif.” The fact that there is only one Morrison short story seems of a piece with her œuvre. There are no dashed-off Morrison pieces, no filler novels, no treading water, no exit off the main road. There are eleven novels and one short story, all of which she wrote with specific aims and intentions.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/toni-morrison-recitatif-short-story-zadie-smith
This essay is drawn from the introduction to “Recitatif: A Story,” by Toni Morrison, out this February from Knopf.
