Book Club Discussion Questions for The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Income Inequality in New Orleans and our BookBrowse Review of The Revisioners.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. The Revisioners is structured as different narratives, each featuring a woman trying to free herself from some kind of crisis. What are the nature of these crises, and what, if anything, do they have in common?
2. Mothers are prominent in all three narratives. What role do they play in each section? Taken all together, what central role do they play that ties all three sections together?
3. In the third narrative, the earliest in time, we are introduced to secret meetings held by slaves who call themselves the Revisioners. What does it mean to "revision," and how does revisioning become a connecting link throughout the novel (thus the title)?
4. Why is spiritual knowledge and practice so vitally important to the mothers throughout the novel?
5. Talk about Ava's experience as the only African American in her school. How does she use the imaginary "white light" to encase herself? Where does she think the white light might come from?
6. The novel recounts acts of racism: in what way does the present echo the past? To what degree has racism abated today? Or has it? Has it merely changed its appearance and modus operandi?
7. Does The Revisioners leave any hope for us today or, more important, for future generations?

Questions provided with permission from Litlovers.com": https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/fiction/revisioners-sexton?start=3

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Counterpoint Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.