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A review by thebookishfeminist
The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
5.0
I’m not even sure I can catch my breath just yet. The Revisioners is a stunning piece of literary genius. It tells many stories in its impressive brevity. We learn about Josephine, a woman whose family was enslaved in Louisiana in the 1800s, and follow her through her experiences both as a slave and as a landowner and mother. We learn about Ava, who embarks on an unexpected journey with her ailing, white grandmother, and watches her son, King, navigate new friendships as he changes schools from inner-city New Orleans to the wealthy neighborhood his grandmother lives in. We see the power of memories, of our intuition, of acknowledging and harnessing the power and strength of our ancestors. We feel how painful and devastating people’s experiences are and yet believe unequivocally in humans’ ability to remain resilient, connected, determined, and compassionate.
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton brought us immediately into the worlds of Ava, Josephine, and their families, and I was invested from just about the first page. Not only did I connect deeply with the characters (which is sort of a meta feeling because it shows that what Sexton illustrates in the book about two people being able to connect and really understand each other even though they’re separate spirits in separate bodies can happen to us when we are engrossed in a novel, too), but I found myself being reminded of things that we all know, deep down, but sometimes forget. Lessons about what it means to be human. What inter-generational traumas can do to a person or people, but also how beautiful life can be, how our lives are measured by how we connect with the earth and its inhabitants, how we honor our ancestors and our descendants before they’re even born.
Sexton brilliantly exposes the tendency of white folx to read about the experiences of marginalized peoples as written by white authors when Ava’s grandmother’s book club selects its newest read, “a fictionalized account of the first black girls’ experiences integrating New Orleans schools. I’ve never read it myself, but saw from the jacket that it’s written by a white woman.” She talks about power. She shows the realities of Ava’s ancestors and of Ava and King’s life, but she does not just show the painful side of those realities. She paints the picture of loving, devoted mothers sons; of women providing compassionate care to young mothers; of our ability to make anything we see in this world a gift. It doesn’t mean we ignore what it took to get there or stop fighting for justice, but it means we don’t have to carry hate in our hearts. She writes, “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.”
This is a captivating, heartbreaking but uplifting and empowering story. It has quotations that will stick with me forever. I will remember the feeling I had as I read this book for a long, long time and will keep the beautiful, strong, devoted characters of Ava, Josephine, King, Major, and so many others with me. “Anything you can touch, you can make holy.” May we treat our earth and all of our fellow inhabitants with this in mind.
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton brought us immediately into the worlds of Ava, Josephine, and their families, and I was invested from just about the first page. Not only did I connect deeply with the characters (which is sort of a meta feeling because it shows that what Sexton illustrates in the book about two people being able to connect and really understand each other even though they’re separate spirits in separate bodies can happen to us when we are engrossed in a novel, too), but I found myself being reminded of things that we all know, deep down, but sometimes forget. Lessons about what it means to be human. What inter-generational traumas can do to a person or people, but also how beautiful life can be, how our lives are measured by how we connect with the earth and its inhabitants, how we honor our ancestors and our descendants before they’re even born.
Sexton brilliantly exposes the tendency of white folx to read about the experiences of marginalized peoples as written by white authors when Ava’s grandmother’s book club selects its newest read, “a fictionalized account of the first black girls’ experiences integrating New Orleans schools. I’ve never read it myself, but saw from the jacket that it’s written by a white woman.” She talks about power. She shows the realities of Ava’s ancestors and of Ava and King’s life, but she does not just show the painful side of those realities. She paints the picture of loving, devoted mothers sons; of women providing compassionate care to young mothers; of our ability to make anything we see in this world a gift. It doesn’t mean we ignore what it took to get there or stop fighting for justice, but it means we don’t have to carry hate in our hearts. She writes, “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.”
This is a captivating, heartbreaking but uplifting and empowering story. It has quotations that will stick with me forever. I will remember the feeling I had as I read this book for a long, long time and will keep the beautiful, strong, devoted characters of Ava, Josephine, King, Major, and so many others with me. “Anything you can touch, you can make holy.” May we treat our earth and all of our fellow inhabitants with this in mind.