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There are currently 31 member reviews
for The Funeral Cryer
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Patricia L. (Seward, AK)
Save your tears...
A funeral cryer is paid to cry at funerals, and/or teaches the bereaved to show the proper sorrow regardless of how they feel about the dead. The profession of funeral crying is unique and interesting and the book describes a social emotional culture of China that is not common knowledge. Utilizing a middle age woman who narrates her plight as a funeral cryer, the isolation that the job creates and her suspicion that her husband is seeing another woman Lu has created a quasi soap opera mystery about rural Chinese.
The downside to this novel is the hum drum cadence of the narration, especially in the beginning. While the intent may have been to make the story feel as the narrator might feel, it is reminiscent of reading a first grade chapter book. Coupled with the lack of significant action, continued reading is a chore. Recommended only for those who have time to plod through the pages and enjoy the predictable redemption of the narrator in the end.
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Anne C.
Not the book for me
I liked finding out about the profession of "funeral cryer", a new idea to me, and the description of life in a rural village in present day China was surprisingly primitive. (Three stars just for the new information).
However, the book as a whole was difficult to enjoy. The unnamed narrator was too passive to even attempt to solve the problems in her marriage and her life. The author introduced multiple plot lines which were never resolved, and the abrupt ending was disappointing.
This book is too dull and depressing for me to recommend it to either of the book clubs I manage.
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Diane
Sad and Detached
The narrator cries at funerals in order to support her husband (who does not work and may or may not be having an affair) and herself. She praises the deceased and expresses sorrow for their deaths in an effort to impart meaning for their lives.
She also tries to find meaning for her own life, but sadly, does not.
I found it difficult to get into this book. I mean if the narrator does not really care if her husband is having an affair, why should I? She shows similar detachment in her other relationships and apparently reserves her emotion for her funeral crying.
This was a sad book and I do not really recommend it.
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Patricia G. (Washington, DC)
This book unfortunately falls flat
The Funeral Cryer is about a subject that I had never heard of—professional funeral mourners. According to Wikipedia, this is an occupation for mostly women that has been around in China since 756. As described in this book, the unnamed and main character is paid to dress in specific clothing, come to funerals of people she doesn't know and perform as a mourner.
I initially anticipated that this would be a historical novel, but the story takes place in a small town in rural China sometime recently (the characters have cell phones, although reception is sketchy). The narrator is a middle-aged woman, stuck in an unhappy marriage with an unemployed husband and a daughter who fled the village and rarely visits. All the characters are unnamed in the book, and are referred to as the butcher, the daughter, the husband, etc. Nothing much happens and no problems are resolved.
Unfortunately, there is no dimensionality in any of the characters. They all seemed flat, like paper cutouts that drift through life, asking questions without expecting or working toward any answers. The narrator often maintains a monologue that is nothing but questions, which is difficult to read. Halfway through the book I realized that I really didn't care what happened to any of characters (this is the point where I would normally give up on a book, but I kept reading to finish for this review). By the end, I had a question of my own: what was the point of this book? I did not come up with an answer.
I cannot in good faith recommend this book.
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Amy
Very disappointing!
I gave this book 1 star, as I am amazed the author was able to get this published. The other star is because I was able to finish the book.
The writing is simplistic and stilted. I found it to be a very slow read but I kept thinking the story was going to become more meaningful. It didn’t.
It was difficult to develop any feeling for the characters as they were poorly developed and the story line just was not that interesting to me.
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Sonya M. (Takoma Park, MD)
Life in Modern Rural China
A funeral cryer is an old-world cultural tradition in China. The cryer sings and stirs up emotional responses at funerals. While a disappearing tradition in modern China, the main character in this story continues this practice in her small village. Given limited employment options, and while shunned by some for the practice, it is the main source of income for her family. The descriptions of village life, the patriarchal village and family life, even when most employment/income is provided by the women in the household, was fascinating to a point. The story highlighted the lack of employment opportunities and limited resources for those without a university education or for those not living in the larger cities. The writing style was abrupt, short sentences, representing a colloquial style of speaking. The story of a funeral cryer, her do nothing but play mah-jongg husband, and his affairs, became repetitive after a while. Once I got past descriptions of life in this small town, I lost interest in the story. And the writing style did not present a fluid reading experience.
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Elizabeth V. (Bellbrook, OH)
If the Author Does Not Care, Why Should I?
I'm not sure what the author intended with this book that did not name any of the main characters other than their role in the story (Daughter, Husband, Barber, etc.) but keeping the characters at such a remove was a fail for me. I found it impossible to care about characters that the author did not bother to name or imbue with personality. I did manage to finish the book but the ending felt like the author was just as tired of the story as I was. The book ended abruptly without any sort of growth or resolution for the Funeral Cryer. Overall, a very dissatisfying read.
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