The Revisioners

by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

In 1925, Josephine is the proud owner of a thriving farm. As a child, she channeled otherworldly power to free herself from slavery. Now, her new neighbor, a white woman named Charlotte, seeks her company, and an uneasy friendship grows between them. But Charlotte has also sought solace in the Ku Klux Klan, a relationship that jeopardizes Josephine's family.

Nearly one hundred years later, Josephine's descendant, Ava, is a single mother who has just lost her job. She moves in with her white grandmother Martha, a wealthy but lonely woman who pays her grandchild to be her companion. But Martha's behavior soon becomes erratic, then even threatening, and Ava must escape before her story and Josephine's converge.

The Revisioners explores the depths of women's relationships—powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors. It is a novel about the bonds between a mother and a child, the dangers that upend those bonds. At its core, The Revisioners ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Book Club, Literary Fiction, African American, Magical Realism

280 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2019

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Sometimes it’s startling to see how much history is so much a part of the present. This is a powerful story about how the prejudice of the past has in many ways not dissipated as some may think and as many of us hoped. Narrated in multiple time frames by two black women, separated by generations, but connected as family and as is evident at the end by so much more. Ava in 2017, divorced with a teenaged son, is down and out having lost her job and struggling to make ends meet . She decides to take a job as caretaker for her privileged white grandmother and she and her son move in with her. The narrative quickly switches to Josephine, Ava’s great-great-great grandmother to her life in 1924, having moved from share cropper to land owner and then moves back to her life as a young slave girl in 1855. The narratives alternate, but the movement between them feels seamless.

So much is covered here - relationships between mothers and their children - Ava and her mother, Ava and her son, Josephine and her mother and her son. You’ll find some magical realism, powers of seeing , power to perhaps change things, healing in each of the time frames. The evils of the Ku Klux Klan in 1924 and the prejudice that still exists in the present day story is hard to read about, but imperative to be read. Throughout I kept wondering how Ava would connect to her great-great-great grandmother Josephine and I was not disappointed in how Sexton brings this full circle in some stunning moments. I never got around to reading Sexton’s much praised A Kind of Freedom, but it’s on my to read list now. I’m thinking that it might be as beautifully written as this one.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Counterpoint through Edelweiss.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong mother, daughter bonds. They were once slaves, but a future generation will own their own property. In Louisiana, how free is actually free when one is black, even if they do own land of their own? Slavery, escaping from slavery and a freedom that is not in only the seems but for these women, in the unseen as well. A power passed down to future daughters. The lasting effects of slavery and the power and barbarity of the KKK.

The novel is clearly written, powerfully written and though it moves backwards and forwards in time, I found this effective for this story. It is not a story with a clear cut plot, but one where it is the women, their stories that are the main focus. How a mother is always present for the daughter, dead or living, never forgotten. Although the slavery sections are never easy to read, it is a hopeful novel, one where each generation is aware of the sacrifices of the prior generation. It is a novel of love, again love that is seen, but also the love that everyone cannot see. I felt this was an authentic novel, no cliches, nor over dramatization. Just a solid, good read.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very a special book—powerful, riveting, and moving.

Wilkerson weaves the past and present together seamlessly — a first hand look at racism —
black and white prejudices, identity, privileges, inequality, culture, religious beliefs, mysticism (occasional prayers & hymns throughout), oppression, freedom, and healing....
through women’s relationships... and their
...families
...children & grandchildren
...marriages
...motherhood
...community
and
...friendships.

Two African-American women connected by blood but divided by time: a biracial single mom in 2017 and a sharecropper turned farm owning widow in 1924.
Harsh facts of history and the weight of myth are explored.

Spanning more than 160 years, the story begins in present day, New Orleans and immediately we question our perceptions, ourselves, examining our social progress....
our history, and our acts of cruelty—

The intimate storytelling grabs our attention immediately as
African American Ava, and her son King, move into their grandmother’s house - Martha, who is wealthy, white, and desperate to connect.
A type of personal atonement- Martha hopes to forgive her younger self for being so selfishly absorbed in her exclusive white posh life— she offers Ava and King a home —when they needed help.
Martha’s home is large beautiful—in an exclusive white neighborhood.
She can provide King an opportunity for college-prep education, at the exclusive private school.
Martha hopes by offering
financial security, education for King, support for Ava- (talented chef included) - that she might be able to make everything right.... including alleviate some past guilt.
It’s not a fairytale easy transition.
They each are strong, strong will, and have their pride.

Then the story flashes back to nearly a century earlier, when Ava’s Great great grandmother Josephine, a former slave, has just met her new white neighbor in 1924.

As a two character story lines converge, Sexton craft a haunting portrait of survival, freedom, and hope....
exploring the depths of women’s relationships, and trauma across centuries.
The bonds between mothers and their children. ...
across the color line....make and break their
relationships, and their generational legacies.

Sexton painfully brings to life through dual timelines—the continued assault on the black American psyche—
the dangers of Josephine and her family experience daily in the Jim Crowe era south and the undercurrent of racism that threaten both Ava and her son, King.
....slavery in 1855; in the Jim Crowe era in 1924, and the newly gentrifying post Katrina New Orleans in 2017.

The dynamics of a brutal past encompassing violence and racial inequality — meet fearless women separated by time —but both dealing with complex
interpersonal dynamics.

“There’s quiet as we wait, and my mother closes her eyes and presses her hands to the ceiling, palms up”.....
“Mother God, Yemaya, Spirit World, Guides, and ancestors,
We call on you today to show us old ways.
We know there’s nothing new under the sun, and we ask you to
Fill our minds with ancient wisdom, our hearts with intuition”.

Powerful wisdom....
This was a dazzling story—
Timely and timeless!!!

[Taylor Reid]

This is one of those books where I just want to press it into your hands and say, “Read it.” It’s beautifully written with lush characters in both Josephine and her great-great-grandaughter Ava, the two women whose storylines cut back and forth throughout the novel. It’s about how the world changes—or doesn't change—over generations, and particularly the complexities of relationships between Black women and white women. But what stands out to me the most are the lines so good and so chilling that I had to shut the book for a moment to process it all.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Revisioners jumps between three timelines - 2017, 1924 and 1855. I was most interested in the present day narrative of Ava, a single bi-racial mother who moves with her son to her white grandmother's home. Yet the novel became increasingly scattered and I became increasingly confused. Slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, doulas, magical realism, a young boy's struggles at school, a grandmother's senility - all in 276 pages. I think the author is trying to make a connection between the present and the past but it got all tangled up. I loved Sexton's first novel so my anticipation of this one and its rave reviews leave me deflated.

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton bowled me over with her first novel, A KIND OF FREEDOM, a deeply resonant novel about three generations of a Black New Orleans family. Her second novel, THE REVISIONERS, also moves through time but over an even greater span: from 1855 to 1925 to 2017. At first it seems these periods could not be more different for Black women in the South, but even across such vast changes there is much that stays the same. This book is, above all, a love letter to the traditions Black women pass down, the strength and the power that survive.

Josephine begins life as a slave, the 1855 sections of the book show us her life as a young girl. Josephine's mother is a Revisioner, a spiritual leader to the other slaves, with gifts of sight and knowledge of healing. Later, as an old woman, we see Josephine on her own land, able to enjoy all that she has built. Until everything threatens to be upended by an unassuming white woman who moves into the land next door. Ava is several generations removed from Josephine, but much of Josephine's power remains in their family. In an attempt to save money to get a new home for herself and her son, Ava moves in with her aging white grandmother. As we move back and forth between their stories, we see Josephine as a wise matriarch and Ava as she begins to come into her understanding of her own inheritance. We also see the ways well-meaning white women can seem harmless but leave massive destruction and pain in their wakes.

THE REVISIONERS doesn't quite rise to the structural and emotional perfection of A KIND OF FREEDOM, but it doesn't seem to have that kind of goal. But like Sexton's first novel, it continues to expand the kinds of Black historical and generational fiction in the world. She's truly a fantastic talent, a must-read.

[NILTON TEIXEIRA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two characters.
Two storylines.
Three timeline: 2017/1924/1855.
Excellent concept, great structure and good writing.
There is even a mythical aspect to the story (they can make things happen through their mind).
Why did I not love this book?
It’s an easy and fast read (just about 73k words) and the chapters are short.
I think that the storyline is underdeveloped and there is no depth.
I did not think that the two storyline intertwined that well (at least not to my satisfaction).
I could not tell the difference between the years.
All voices sounded the same.
I could not feel anything (I was totally numb for such a dramatic topic).
And that ending was abrupt.
Overall, I was bored and disappointed.
Perhaps I picked this book at the wrong time and I’m willing to revisit it, but not so soon.

[Brown Girl Reading · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 2,5

Sadly The Revisioners wasn't at all what I had hoped. Story told through 3 timelines: 2017/1924/1855.
Sexton uses these 3 timelines to talk about the same family. These there parallel stories discuss slavery, reconstruction, and modern day where similar themes of race and relationships between blacks and whites. The book is fairly short so the characters aren't developed enough for my taste. Not only the storylines aren't that special. Sexton's writing style is not bad but the plethora of characters to keep up with soured me on the first third of the book. I was expecting there to be more of a New Orleans feel to the book but there were only mentions of the Crescent City in the 2017 time line. I haven't given up on this writer. I'm looking forward to trying her debut novel A Kind of Freedom.

[Bobbieshiann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is like a string you come across that is so long you keep following it until you find out what’s at the end. A story where Black women narrate it and give you feelings of strength and courage. Black women raising their sons in the age were rap music is questionable and a time where looking a white man in the eyes is considered a “crime”.

You are nurtured throughout this story as the past and the present collide in a powerful way in one families lineage. There is limited sympathy towards white women as they share their pain, but it is unmatched to every Black woman in this story. It has no real power in this story but does show how they seek comfort from Black women. “I could prepare my bath with white women’s tears”.


I’ll admit I became naive towards the ending of the book. I thought this would be a time where maybe our voice would not be shattered by the mistakes of the white man BUT!!! I was wrong. The end hurt me in a way that I was oddly not prepared for.

There is so much to take away from this story and highly recommend you read it! On that note, I will leave you with this quote from the book, “And my momma said you could tell a lot about a man by his shoes, but if she’d come visit me, I’d tell her that’s not true. My mama makes a lot of bad decisions in her life, and in a lot of ways I had to raise her, but this time I would tell her, that’s not true. So in case there’s a man in her life she needs to judge, she’ll know to find another way”.

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We have a ghost in here.”

That’s how Toni Morrison writes in “Beloved” about the spiteful specter that haunts an old house in Cincinnati.

Her artful invocation of that ghost remains incomparable but also widely relevant to the history of African Americans in this country. The spiritual practices that kidnapped Africans carried with them to the United States affirmed the immanent presence of their ancestors. The trauma of the Civil War inflamed white Americans’ interest in spiritualism. And Klansmen materialized the evil forces of racism as white-robed phantoms.

We have all kinds of ghosts in here.

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton takes on this legacy in her new novel, “The Revisioners.” Spanning more than 160 years, the story begins in present-day New Orleans and immediately questions the presumptions of our self-satisfied social progress. The narrator, Ava, is a biracial single mother trained as a paralegal but currently between jobs. Determined to save money, she accepts an invitation from her white grandmother to move into the old woman’s mansion and work as a companion. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

[Nursebookie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This riveting novel, The Revisioners was told in two crucial point of views and in three pivoting time lines that feature two African-American women - Ava and Josephine, who are connected by blood, and whose stories span over 160 years from the 1850’s through 1920’s, and finally in current day New Orleans, 2017.

This is a story of a family that for generations had been penetrated by deeply ingrained racism. This is a timely story that the readers will connect with and the reason why our black communities are still struggling for equality and human rights.

The story begins in current time with Ava as a biracial woman who moves in to her very wealthy white great grandmother’s home to work as her companion - the story wants me to believe just as Ava, that social progress and racism has been overcome in this family despite warnings from her own family.

My favorite was Josephine’s story, which began as an enslaved child in the mid 1800’s. Her story continues as she becomes a successful landowner in the 1920’s. Throughout the story, there were sprinkling of prayers, scriptures and church hymns that add to the setting of life in the south during those times.

The Revisioners was a sweeping and powerful story of how racial tensions spans across generation through the stories of women, their familial relationships, and the ingrained prejudice that seeps through not only in this family but the community that goes beyond skin deep.

I highly recommend this book. Margaret Wilkerson Sexton is a brilliant writer that probes into the stories of the privileged to the marginalized, and the fragility of the racial divide that is still palpable in our current times. A timely and relevant story that is a must read.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This multigenerational story focuses on Ava in 2017; and Josephine in 1924 and as a child in 1855. Both black women are mothers seeking freedom for their families while navigating white privilege and entrenched racism before the Civil War, after Reconstruction and even today. Ava and Josephine survive a society seeking to deny them dignity. [The author helps their efforts with a little magical realism every once in a while.]

Wilkerson Sexton creates wonderful characters that will stick with you. Charlotte, Josephine’s friendly white neighbor, is married to an abusive Ku Klux Klan member. Ava acts as her white grandmother’s caregiver, but the woman’s dementia shuttles her back to a previous era that claimed white superiority and thus, behaves abominably towards Ava on occasion. Both situations prove difficult and possibly dangerous.

However, this is less of a plot-driven novel than a recounting of two strong women building on the legacies of their female ancestors. Recommend.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton was incredible. This multigenerational novels follows two mothers (one in two different periods of her life, in childhood and old age, in bondage and free, which, just, wow) whose power, even their inherited ancestral magic, is sucked dry by the ravening maw of racism, both the structural kind, but also the deeply deeply personal variety. This book examines childhood and motherhood in the impossible world of America that punishes Black people for existing and working for better for theirs. This book looks at how dangerous white privilege is, and how quickly it can tip into expressions of white power and devastating entitlement. This book names all of the ways that racism marks our bodies and subdues our spirit. And this book holds a very honest mirror up to the lurking danger of white supremacy that is often just below the surface of neighbourliness, friendliness, good intentions, and even love. This one was a bit spooky, a lot scary, and entirely transporting. Read this. Read Wilkerson Sexton’s first novel, A Kind of Freedom, too. Preorder it. Spread the word. Thank you counterpoint press for this advance reader copy of The Revisioners.

[Maxwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

[2.5 stars]
This had great potential, but I felt that it was underdeveloped. Not a lot of time is spent in the build-up to events that could potentially be very powerful and moving. However, they lose their strength when the story rushes to a conclusion that doesn't feel earned. I also felt like way more time was spent on Josephine's story than Ava's, so the balance was off making the Ava sections feel sort of like a second thought. Good writing and a good structure, but the execution left something to be desired.

[Paris (parisperusing) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s The Revisioners taps into the gifts, glories, and gospels of three generations of Black women who, in the face of slavery and its vestiges, must reckon with matters of faith and trust. The book shifts between chapters told by Ava, an out-of-work single mother living in 2017 New Orleans, and her great-grandmother Josephine — both from her time as a widowed self-made farmer in 1925 and in her youth on the plantation in 1855. Then there is Gladys, Ava’s mother and Josephine’s daughter, who albeit chapter-less, affirms her place as a doula and the spiritual thread that connects them all. Without her, Ava might not have taken heed to the power within herself, nor the dangerous harbingers she overlooked after relocating with her son to the home of her seemingly harmless white grandmother, Martha, in exchange for payment.

Just as Gladys feared, Ava becomes worn down by Martha’s protean mood swings, which give way to menacing outbursts that evoke pangs of another time, a time of the plantation, and one that still pangs the story’s matriarch in her old age. We see this in 1925 with Josephine, a miracle child reborn of powers inherited from her mother, a Revisioner — a Black spiritual healer and a sage among the other slaves she envisioned to freedom — when a KKK-affiliated white woman arrives at her door pining for camaraderie, one that ends in blood.

For me, this heart-gripping story laid bare the many truths I’d already known of white entitlement, rage, and dishonesty, but also offered a larger notion of what it must mean to carry those burdens, of inheriting powers beyond our belief. Despite my reservations of the amount of wrongdoing I felt went spared in this book — Martha’s bigotry coddled by her age, a mother having to pander to the very people who murdered her child — I found catharsis in the true might of ancestral spirituality that was passed down to deliver us from those sorrows.

Written in the vein of Jesmyn Ward’s “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” Sexton is a gifted storyteller who not only lends credence to the emotional endurance of her people but to the boundless power Black women can summon to survive.


If you liked my review, feel free to follow me @parisperusing on Instagram.

[Meera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel moved between three timelines: mid 1800's, early 1900's and current time. Each story line was compelling in its own way and the pacing was done well. My issue with this book was with the characterizations and the sometimes, the writing. I didn't really like Josephine the elder or her descendant, Ava. Josephine was often harsh and seemed to lack empathy for some members of her family. The same could be said of Ava with her mother. Ava's description of her relationship with her mother prior to the beginning of the book didn't make any sense from the way the author portrayed her mother. There were times when I had to keep re-reading lines to figure out what the author was saying and this wasn't done in appreciation of the writing. This happened less and less as the novel went on and as I got used to the style, but it was irritating at first. At the end, I am glad I read the book but not sure that I would try another book by this author. Not till I see from reviews that she's become a stronger writer than she currently is.

[Quo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's The Revisioners represents a multi-generational focus on the experiences of African-American women in the deep south, covering the years 2017, 1924 & 1855, a novel that attempts to draw comparisons among the characters portrayed and to tie them together with a structure that includes bible verses, folk tales & mythical strains to provide the women with a common bond, a kinship based on their roles as mothers.



In part, the novel is a litany of the difficulties of being born a black woman in the deep south:

Sometimes, I would just sit & as soon as I shut my eyes, it would feel as if a plug was stretching from the crown of my head to the great world beyond. Angels would drift over me laughing in my ear. But that wasn't all. There were times I'd swing & I'd punch & I'd scream it all out, all the indignities of being born black & a woman and my cries would be met with pure silence but my walk back would feel like floating on the top of a river & my chest would feel like an empty channel. I don't know what is to come.

While there are lyrical passages and the novel seems to build toward a conclusion that might bind the 3 time-frames together, this never seems to happen. The most fetching passages within The Revisioners occur in the period that matches the author's own, set in New Orleans where she grew up.

However, even with that, I did not feel that the city really came alive, seeming as distant as that set within a slave plantation in 1855. Beyond that, the characters inhabiting the 1855 frame & those who reside in 1924 often seem to speak with a common voice, though the biracial Ava does insert the names of contemporary pop groups when referencing her own son, King in 2017.

The scenes dealing with midwives & doulas (pregnancy "coaches" or advisors without medical training) are interesting but the character of Josephine, who exhibits magical powers in 1855, seemingly carried forward to another character with the same name in 1924, appeared not sufficiently developed, rather just painted in on the margins.

The two early periods were referenced more than they were fully engendered or animated. The image of life on a slave plantation called Wildwood in 1855 was not very intensely portrayed, rather merely suggested.



At some point, I felt that the the author meant to convey that her characters exhibited via their DNA a kind of archetypal behavior, in the novel called "ancestor spirit" but I did not sense this was accomplished. The women do in fact share a linkage, "connections deeper & more powerful than blood" but this nexus was not well developed. And yet, there were some wonderfully expressed passages, including...

She stood, but she said it wasn't her feet that she stood on. They were heavy with calluses & age, the feet of a woman who had worked in the fields. She carried a weight she wasn't accustomed to & even climbing off her pallet was strenuous. The biggest change was in her mind: it had emptied out & narrowed in a way that relieved her.

She knew to make haste for the swamplands. Don't let the sun rise before you're back her mother's voice sounded in her own mind, the same way she had taught her to stitch moccasins, or cut watermelon for its rind to rinse her face. That voice was gentle but firm, not like hers, which was as heavy as a man's people said.

There are inter-racial frustrations & betrayals across generations, with an appearance by the KKK in a 1924 sequence and Alma's wealthy white grandmother Martha on the verge of senility violating the trust of her own bi-racial kin in 2017.

A white woman named Charlotte seemingly aims to befriend her African-American near-neighbor, Josephine in 1924 but that outreach ends badly. And an enslaved family escapes from their plantation in 1855, with the aid of a man named Jupiter who has unearthly talents but the scenario did not seem credible. This is not a story using magical-realism but rather a tale with hints of magic & where all of the pieces simply fail to adhere, in spite of some memorable characters and very well-expressed passages.

It is not easy to craft a book covering 160 years of changing social & racial landscapes and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's novel, The Revisioners demonstrates tangible ability & a considerable flair for words but ultimately left me feeling undernourished by a framework that may presently be beyond the reach of a young author. In spite of that, I did enjoy being introduced to a world & periods of time very unlike my own.

*The photo images within my review are of the author.

[Arlene♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really liked this book. It was touching, gripping. I even like the back and forth of the time jumping. I loved the connection between Josephine and Ava and their relationships with their mothers and I even saw myself and my mother's relationship reflected here. But I will say that they only thing that I didn't really vibe with was the way the book ended. I was left with so many questions, SO MANY questions. What happened with Josephine and her neighbors? What happened with Ava and Grandma Martha? I need to know what happens! lol

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Multiple timeline story of two women living in New Orleans a century apart. In 2017, Ava is a biracial woman with a preteen son. They move in with her white grandmother, whom she does not know well, after losing her job. Her grandmother starts experiencing memory deterioration (either Alzheimer’s or dementia). Her great-great-great-grandmother Josephine’s story is told in two timelines – one in 1855 when she is a ten-year-old slave and the other in 1924 when she is a landowning widow. Her life seems to be improving until her white neighbor stops by and they become friends.

This is a character-driven novel with little plot. The titular “revisioners” are a group of slaves attempting to escape their Louisiana plantation using unusual methods. The narrative rotates among the three timelines and highlights. There are many similarities in the lives of Josephine and Ava. It includes a magical realist element – a healing power that is passed down through the generations. Topics include the legacy of slavery, intergenerational trauma, different forms of freedoms, and the sacrifices made by the previous generations to make life better for their children. I particularly liked how the two stories mirror each other and eventually converge in an interesting way.

“What happens to the ancestor spirit when it dies?” “It comes back into my children, their children, their children’s children.” She paused again, let me consider what I’d said. “You ever think about what it will come back to?” she asked. “No, ma’am,” I said back. “Well, you think about it, because it’s up to you. The ancestors come back with whatever heart they left behind. If it’s a hateful one, they come back hating. Whoever they hated come right back with them, in one form or another.”

[Allyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't complain about the writing of this novel--it's very well written, with strong and distinct voices for the different narrators (Ava, in present day, and Josephine, Ava's ancestor, in both her post-slavery adulthood and during-slavery childhood). However, I was underwhelmed by the story overall.

The structure sets up an interesting parallel and the themes of women's strength, motherhood, racism, and overcoming to achieve a dream and freedom in all of that word's meanings have never been more timely. But the choice of alternating narrators and timelines sets up an expectation that the two will not only converge, but that the two stories will mirror one another. The book had momentum and I felt like we were heading for a dramatic collision course, but it never happened. Instead, the story kind of fizzled out and just ended.

Was the critical moment when the slavecatchers chasing Josephine and her parents confirmed their Master's last name was Dufrene (making it absolutely clear that he is the ancestor of Ava's paternal grandmother, Martha)? It didn't feel like much of a reveal given that we already had at least one mention by Martha that she grew up at Wildwood, the Dufrene plantation and the setting for Josephine's childhood narrative.

Was it when Ava embraced and accepted her natural and inherited gifts as a doula? That was pretty predictable and not very dramatic or emotionally fulfilling since it was never really Ava's dream nor something she seriously struggled with.

Besides the letdown of the ending, I also felt like the parallel and mirroring here did not work well at all. To be blunt, the primary parallel between Josephine's story and Ava's seems to be that you can't trust white people, even when they are nice to you. In fact, at least one character says this explicitly in each timeline. And that's just fine, but the two women's experiences are hardly a fair comparison: Josephine reluctantly befriends a white neighbor who turns out to be a KKK member whose husband is responsible for the heinous murder of Josephine's son; Ava and her son are invited to move in with her rich white grandmother, but she changes her mind and leaves when grandma's bouts of dementia include racist remarks that she doesn't want her son overhearing or internalizing.

Both because of the ominous comments by Ava's mother and Ava's son--they remark on feeling something mysterious and dark in the house that's dangerous and from which they must escape--and also due to the intentional pairing of these narratives, it felt like the author was trying to make a mountain out of a molehill with Ava's story. Yes, the racist comments add a level of psychological harm and general horribleness, but even so, it is completely normal and commonplace for Alzheimer's and dementia patients to say strange, cruel things and even to become violent when they have "episodes." I have friends caring for elderly parents who endure way worse than anything Martha says or does every single day.

Martha is mostly kind and benign, even generous, having offered this arrangement to her granddaughter--and Ava makes a point of sharing several kind things that Martha had done for her over the years. Ava isn't a prisoner, and both she and her son benefit from living with Martha. Was Martha probably still pretty racist underneath her show of kindness? Well sure, she probably was, because that's how she was raised. And that doesn't make it okay. But again, it makes sense that when she is out of her mind, some of the things she says reflect that racist upbringing, and it does not mean that these things reveal some kind of hidden truth or sinister intentions any more than it does for any other patient in her state of mind. And even if she were truly still racist and barely hiding it, to what end? Ava's "escape" from the mansion (she basically just has grandma committed and moves out) can hardly be compared to Josephine's escape from slavery on the plantation. I just think the author could have and should have chosen a better and stronger conflict for Ava to match Josephine's.

There are stories out there about slavery and racism then and now that are far more powerfully written, and worthier of your time.

[Read In Colour · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know how you finish a book and rate it right away, but then you wake up the next day after you've had time to sleep on that book and you're like, no, that book wasn't really a 5 star, it's more of a 4 star? That's me with The Revisioners.

I love the way Margaret Wilkerson Sexton travels back and forth between two different eras and two different protagonists. She did it really well in A Kind of Freedom and does it fairly well in The Revisioners, except when I woke up thinking about the story line this morning, it dawned on me that there were a number of loose ends that weren't tied up by the end of the book.

Without giving too much away, I'll say there were characters in the present and in the past who were tied to each other, that much was spelled out. But there were other characters in the present and in the past who I think may have been tied to each other (or really should have been in my opinion), but I don't know if they were or if there was just an underlying message about the kind of people you can and cannot trust.

Another thing that kind of shook me was the abrupt ending because it left a big question unanswered about one of the two protagonists. There were also unanswered questions in regards to some of the present day characters that left me scratching my proverbial head.

Overall, The Revisioners is still a solid read, which is why I gave it four stars, I just wish the author had taken a little more time to give definitive answers instead of leaving readers to guess.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A multigenerational story about the deep layers of racism that links to the present. This book is rich with history and powerful in depicting the savagery of an unfair system. How the depths of the trauma from the past is ever present. Sad but also a beautifully interwoven story of these two women connected by heartbreak and pain.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am less a fan of this author than most people, and I'm not sure why that is. To be truly honest, I don't actually understand why others like her so much.

This is a book that alternates between two stories - Josephine, a strong woman, born as a slave who ended up as a successful farmer and midwife and her great-granddaughter, Ava, who is struggling as a single mother who was laid off from a career as a paralegal.

Josephine is a quarter Caucasian as her father was the son of the plantation master. Ava is half white, the product of a brief marriage between her mother and a privileged young man who did not have much to do with his daughter following the divorce. Ava moves in temporarily with her father's mother in an attempt to save money for a downpayment on a permanent home. She could have easily moved in with her mother, but accepts the offer from her grandmother because she felt marginalized by the Caucasian side of her family and feels this is a long overdue acknowledgement of kinship. The grandmother is experiencing the onset of dementia and her erratic and sometimes racist behavior make it impossible for Ava to stay with her.

There are some parallels between the two characters - they both have the ability to "see" things as they want them to be in a way that makes them come true. This occurs earlier and more regularly for Josephine but as Ava's character develops, she opens up to the possibilities for this in her life.

I think my issues with this book are twofold. I never felt the two stories intertwine in a satisfactory way. They felt more like two short stories that were split up and told in alternating voices. Secondly, the end of the book also seemed abrupt, particularly the "Ava" story.

An easy read, somewhat engaging, but disappointing overall.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Revisioners tells the stories of two women separated by generations, yet linked by history. Ava, a single, biracial mom to adolescent son King, moves into the New Orleans mansion of her white grandmother, Martha. Ava needs to shore up her finances after losing her job and Martha, elderly and frail, needs a caregiver. This new and awkward reality is contrasted with the story of Ava's great-great-great grandmother, Josephine, in alternating chapters with Josephine as a young slave in 1855 and as a grandmother in 1924 in Jim Crow South.

It's a beautiful, lucid story of intertwining narratives that explores how these marginalized women realize their power and become healers. The power and richness of each woman's story is diluted by the back and forth that leaves too many unanswered questions and thinly developed plotlines about the betrayal of white women, second sight, sons and mothers, and so my enthusiasm waned from keen interest to a sense of frustration by the rushed ending. I wanted more time in each story to see these characters through to their next chapters. Although an uneven experience for me, I found this a worthy, lovely read.

[Robert Blumenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

There have been a number of Black women authors who are trending in modern day reading circles, and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton is a very worth addition to this grouping. In a Toni Morrison (Beloved) influenced style she covers the lives of Josephine in both 1855 and 1924, and her great-great-great granddaughter Ava in 2017. In 1855, Josephine is a young girl slave at one of the more humanely run plantations in Louisiana, though it is not without its cruelty. Her mother is trying to organize a plan to run away to the North. She obviously survives the ordeal, for she is still alive in 1924. She has a son and grandson, and two daughters who have moved away. She befriends a young white woman who lives nearby, which causes both some comfort and trouble for her and her family.

In 2017, Ava decides to move in with her aging White grandmother and help to take care of her for room, board and compensation. She has a 12-year-old son also. Things do not go as smoothly as she was hoping. She loves her grandmother, but she also is wary of her subdued racism. It appears she never did fully accept Ava's mother's marriage to her White son. There is also a connection here to the past, which is brought out later in the novel.

This book traces the Black experience in America, from slavery to modern day. There are always White people involved in some way, and there is never a totally trouble-free relationship. The author seems to be showing how the bonds of slavery are hard to overcome, even over time. The book also has the aura of magic and ghosts about it, though it is never so fantastical that it distracts from the narrative. We are slaves to the past, and we have the ability to read other people to know their desires even without them orating them to us.

This is a beautifully told tale. There are some very exciting m0ments and, though it took a little while, I became very wrapped up in these characters and their story.

[Camie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A work of sweeping historical fiction sprinkled with magical realism and healing powers. This is the story of strong black women over the generations who struggle to overcome the obstacles of their times including slavery and racial injustice which culminates in the life of Ava their modern ancestor who as a single mother is trying to find a place for her son in the world.
This is my first read by Sexton but I’m adding her previous book to my TBR, and I look forward to her future endeavors.
4.5 stars read for Kick Up Your Heels club- Feb select

[Rena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was held captive by this book. The gripping story of a black family from slavery to modern day, The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton tells the story of three generations where the women are the focal point, the healers, the strength to their survival. I still have questions about how the book ends, but Sexton's writing is so beautiful and harrowing. And the white women in this book, my God.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Revisioners is a heartbreaking novel that left me wanting more, not more from the story or the writing, just more of the rich powerful display of women, both marginalized and privileged. Sexton has written a book that reads with the pace of a thriller and the beauty of a modern classic. Told in three generations, centered around two women, Josephine in 1865 living on a plantation in Louisiana as a child and a slave, she befriends the owners young daughter, neither of them seeing the difference in race or social class. Then Josephine again in 1924, now the owner of the very land her family once lived on, through a series of events her and her husband have taken it over and things are going great, and then a lonely white woman and her husband move in next door and the woman so desperately seeks a friend in Josephine, but her other group she confides in is a direct threat to Josephine and her family. The third narrative is Ava in 2017, a descendant of Josephine who is down on her luck and her and her son are resigned to go live with her wealthy aging grandmother and is payed to take care of her, the problem is, she’s white, and her dementia and internal struggles with her past force Ava to relive the same struggles of Josephine almost 100 years later.
Told in alternating narratives we see these women persevere their birthright and the world that is stacked against them and thrive, despite the constant threat of the whiteness that surrounds and tries to dictate their lives. The final bow that tightly wraps this novel together is the “revisioners” a take on the ancient black antebellum healers who sought to serve their community with both magic and folk medicine, passed through their bloodline like a dominate trait it truly brings everything together in the end. With constant reminders of family and their heartbreak and loss, this novel was so powerful and left me in tears at the end, written with the same fervor of Jesmyn Ward and Colson Whitehead with her second Novel Margaret Wilkerson Sexton has show that she is here to stay ( after her first book garnered a spot on the longlist for national book award in 2017. The revisioners is sure to be one of my favorite books of the year and a big sleeper for a modern cult classic that breaks the mold with how special it is, and its rich female driven narrative, whose strong Women of color will stay with me long after the calendar turns another page and this book is released November 5th ( do yourself a favor and pre order this one, it was the first thing I did when I finished, I NEEDED a finished copy to keep)

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not find this book particularly powerful or impactful. At less than 300 pages, the alternating narratives did not leave a lot of room for character development, and some of the dialogue verged on trite. Also, the magical realism was not fully explored, seemingly tacked on for effect. I think there are many finer books about intergenerational trauma and white supremacy.

[Erin (roostercalls) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been thinking about Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s THE REVISIONERS since I read it 3 months ago. Last Friday, as I sat listening to Ibram Kendi & Ta-Nehisi Coates discuss his new novel The Water Dancer, it was almost ALL I could think about. It was so pertinent to the conversation that I was dying to ask either man if they’d read it yet.
♾
THE REVISIONERS ensnared me with a tantalizing foreboding from its opening pages, though nothing terribly foreboding is happening in them: it’s 2017, & Ava is talking to her son, King, about a forgotten photograph as they prepare to move in with her grandmother. Ava is biracial, the daughter of a black mother & white father. King moves through the world as a black boy. Their (great-)grandmother Martha is white—and she’s losing her mind a little. The story is told in alternating POVs that bounce between the pre-Civil War, post-Reconstruction, and modern-day American South, and…I’m hesitant to offer more details. I went into the book blind & finished it in one sitting, dragged along by a teeming urgency that builds to a gut-punch of a climax.
♾
Like The Water Dancer, Sexton’s book has elements of the supernatural, the magical. But they are a subtle infusion, a shadow that dissipates if you try to glimpse it head-on for most of the book. This light touch is also apparent in the questions the narrative asks, never outright or with a shout, but in murmuring whispers: what does it mean for the legacy of black America & the legacy of white America to meet in one person? Can the ties that transcend racial animus *really* prevail over the violence of slavery? Are memory & trauma wrapped around our DNA, seeded to the next generation on and on, world without end? Vivid prose packed into a tight, disciplined story structure reminds the reader that if history is not forgetting, we’ve got to find other ways to heal.
♾
If you’re looking for a book that’ll leave a mark in you, that you’ll be thinking of months down the line, considering in the light of other novels & current events alike, THE REVISIONERS is available from @counterpointpress on 11/5. I hope every single one of you picks it up then comes to talk to me about it.