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Book Reviewed by:Following her National Book Award–nominated debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton returns with this equally elegant and historically inspired story of survivors and healers, of black women and their black sons, set in the American South.
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.
Sexton's deft plotting creates one of the best, most layered generational family sagas in recent memory. She skillfully demonstrates how the past informs the present, and how we are all the sum of not just our personal choices but also the intricate webs of our family histories. The metaphysical connections between Josephine, Gladys and Ava are creatively drawn and beautifully rendered, and these relationships elevate the novel to truly impressive heights...continued
Full Review
(803 words)
(Reviewed by Lisa Butts).
In Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's The Revisioners, mixed race protagonist Ava moves into her aging white grandmother's ostentatious New Orleans mansion in order to help out, and also to save money so she can one day afford to buy a home of her own. Throughout the novel, Sexton paints a vivid picture of the income inequality evident in different areas of the city.
In a 2018 report by the Brookings Institute on income inequality in American cities, New Orleans came in at number four (out of the 100 most populous cities in the country). Brookings notes that the 20th percentile of households earn an average yearly income of just $12,373, while the 95th percentile earn an average of $203,254. (To put things in perspective, the average ...
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Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's writing is graceful and stylish, her truths relevant and necessary—it's just so exhilarating to read her. I was mesmerized by The Revisioners, an impeccable novel of magic, loss, and family, all anchored by generations of powerful women.
