In its plot and themes The Lynchers is an explosive book, sure to elicit strong reactions from readers. The plan to lynch a white policeman, with its component parts of murdering and mutilating a black woman and the inevitable reprisals from white society, thrusts to the foreground issues of power, violence, and revolution. Such topics demand discussion, particularly in a society rife with unrest.

Kermit Frazier has said that Wideman's fiction "is difficult and places great demands on the reader . . . But he is an exceptional writer of keen insight who is certainly worth reading and following". The Lynchers is one of Wideman's more difficult books, both in terms of content and form. These questions may help readers work through some of the issues in the novel.

1. The four conspirators are radically different men. What draws them together? How are they similar?

2. What motivates the four conspirators...