The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m conflicted about this book. On the one hand it was an enjoyable read. Thought-provoking with some suspense. On the other hand, I don’t feel like the ending delivered on the suspense and I have more questions than I do answers.
Weaving two stories, that of Josephine in 1855 and 1925 and Ava in 2017, readers are taken on the journey of a family in New Orleans and his things have changed and not changed for this Black family. It was very poignant to see Josephine not just as an enslaved young girl in the 1855 sections but also as a business woman and matriarch in 1924 trying to keep her family and farm together during the horror of the Jim Crow era. We then jump to Ava who, even in 2017, is facing racism from her white grandmother. The plot and conflict of the story are a frustrating reminder that as far as we (most white Americans) think we’ve come, there’s still a long ways to go.
I was disappointed that more wasn’t developed with who the Revisioners were. It’s the title of the book but it’s barely mentioned throughout and I feel like I don’t know what was happening. Part of that is because Josephine is our first-person narrator in these sections and being so young I don’t think she knew it all. So I can see why it’s not as developed as I’d hoped.
All in all this was a good reading experience and I do think it’s an interesting book club choice because there’s so much to discuss.
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