Revisioners (Sexton) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
A] stunning new novel…. Song lyrics, prayers, chants and Scripture are used liberally to situate the characters in time, but also to bind them to one another through a shared culture.… Today’s readers will find the novel’s most visceral moments of cruelty all too familiar: white Americans dismantling any pretense of civility, taking out their own great pain on a black body. But the… novel is about the women, the mothers.… The Revisioners also reminds us that… there are also connections… that turn a collection of individuals into a community, and will forever be more significant than any bond that’s merely skin deep.
Stephanie Powell Watts - New York Times Book Review


[Sexton's] subtle portrayal of a black mother’s competing desires is layered with both pathos and wit…. We hear from her as an enslaved child in 1855 and as a successful businesswoman in 1924.… Each of these episodes is shattered by violence, yes, but also leavened by varying degrees of progress, despite the persistence of white people convinced of their superiority, innocence and benevolence. The result is a novel marked by acts of cruelty but not, ultimately, overwhelmed by them.
Ron Charles - Washington Post


Few capture the literary world’s attention with their debut like this author did; her first novel, A Kind of Freedom, was nominated for the National Book Award and earned several other top accolades. Her anticipated follow-up offers a bracing window into Southern life and tensions, alternating between two women’s stories—set nearly 100 years apart.
Entertainment Weekly


[A] sweeping novel…. Sexton’s characters gain strength by finding one another across the generations.
New Yorker


The fragility fashioned by the sacrifices of Black bodies is confronted in this smart and spooky novel.
Essence


A powerful tale of racial tensions across generations.
People


Wilkerson crafts a necessary narrative on motherhood, race and freedom. (A Must Read Book of the Year)
Time


In this incantatory novel by the author of A Kind of Freedom, a biracial New Orleans woman grapples with prejudice by excavating the story of a female ancestor who endured the roil between slavery and the Jazz Age.
Oprah Magazine,


(Starred review) [An] excellent story of a New Orleans family’s ascent from slavery to freedom…. A chilling plot twist reveals the insidious racial divide that stretches through the generations, but it’s the larger message that’s so timely… powerful and full of hope.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) [W]ell-crafted…. The dynamics of a brutal past… is core here, but the narrative… [acknowledges] that the past is not completely past…. Two fearless women separated by time but both dealing with white women’s racism.
Library Journal


It's rare for dual narratives to be equally compelling, and Sexton achieves this while illustrating the impact of slavery long after its formal end.… Readers will engage fully in this compelling story of African American women who have power in a culture that attempts to dismantle it.
Booklist


(Starred review) This second novel from Sexton confirms the storytelling gifts she displayed in her lushly readable debut, A Kind of Freedom…. At the intriguing crossroads of the seen and the unseen lies a weave among five generations of women
Kirkus Reviews