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.

The Funeral Cryer was a novel that introduced me to many cultural differences between a mature woman living in a Chinese village and the life I enjoy. I had never heard of a funeral cryer. The fact that the main character had stumbled upon this career as a way to support her household seemed to affect every part of her being. While the job seemed to pay well and allowed her husband not to work, it brought with it an isolation as the funeral cryer was often unwelcome in homes or at happy gatherings.

I was interested in the descriptions, from the minimalist housing and lack of material goods, to the complicated system that allowed the government to own all the land. The views on aging, children, and usefulness were also explored. The writing style is unique, with characters only referred to by their role or relation, husband, barber, etc. The novel would lead to great discussions

This was an emotional, atmospheric read. I really appreciated the sparse, minimalistic writing style that packed more of a punch with the austerity of its phrasing. Some sections are entirely short, back-and-forth dialogue that is still easy to follow/understand and really allows the reader space to draw their own conclusions. The whole story is narrated by the funeral cryer, and her musings, reflections, and resolutions felt like a truly immersive experience. Despite the sometimes limited page time of the other characters, they all have intriguing backstories and are distinct individuals with compelling relationships to the funeral cryer that were interesting to explore. I appreciated the emphasis on city and village names with the lack of named characters, the overall setting, and the depictions of Chinese death culture and superstitions. The plot unfolds slowly and satisfyingly, and I did not predict the ending. I liked that the story ends at this particular point in the funeral cryer's story, and I keep going back and forth on what I think her answer to the final question posed at the end will be. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a moody, broody, atmospheric, emotional read that really lets you get to know one character in depth.

Thanks to Book Browse and NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.

The Funeral Cryer is a quiet, contemplative character study of a woman in her forties living in rural China. She has been raised with traditional expectations of her life and is accepting of her not particularly happy life and the restrictions she places on herself.

She works as a funeral cryer which allows her to express strong emotions that she otherwise suppresses. This job brings in the only income for her immediate family, but the job comes with the stigma of being unlucky which alienates her from her neighbors. The story is told only from her point of view so the reader never really knows if her community feels she is unlucky or if she is projecting.

The details of her job, life in a rural community and the contrast with city life were interesting. She identifies the characters in her life by their role/job rather than names which adds to the universality. She has a sense of humor, ie: calling a character Hotpot after everyone's favorite dish. Her understanding of her daughter, husband and mother are insightful.

The reader sees her acknowledge and act on her own needs and other characters begin to give her respect as a person.

The title piqued my interest as I've never heard of a funeral cryer and I'm always interested in different cultures. While the conditions of the people's lives in this Chinese village (constant struggles to earn enough money for present and future needs, ever present concerns of what neighbors/family think of their
actions/decisions and all of the superstitions that govern their thoughts and actions) were depressing, I kept waiting for the main character's circumstances to improve. Some of the book reviews spoke of changes she would make that improve her situation. I kept waiting for some big event that would change everything. It was much more subtle than that.
The author's use of first person gives an ongoing monologue of her (the main character's) thoughts, feelings and ambitions. She also agonizes over what others will think of her actions.
I thought the author's style of writing was an asset to the story telling. By giving her these small incremental inner dialogues, the author lets the reader see her inner changes and how that affects how she sees her world and herself.
I could see a book club learning much from a discussion on this book.

Funeral customs and beliefs vary significantly between cultures. A small glimpse of modern funeral customs in rural China is the best part of this novel. As a novel, it at best represents this one situation, but within the story, customs and beliefs are rather thoroughly discussed. The overall impression of this middle aged woman’s life is that it is joyless, loveless and hopeless. Nothing suggests a better life before or to come. I cannot decide if the blandness of the story, the almost nonexistent plot or a cultural disconnect is responsible for the disheartening overall feeling left by the story. References to weak family connections, little hope for future life comforts, superstition rather than a belief system and no reliance on community or government makes this reading experience feel more like a manifestation of Orwell’s masterpiece novel 1984, than a novel about village life in China. Despite the dismal lives that inhabit this novel, the small glimpses inside rural China may rescue the book for some readers.

This book was a big disappointment for me. Although I think the subject was fascinating as I had never heard of a funeral cryer before, the narrative was slow and dry,and I couldn’t relate to any of the one dimensional characters. I found the main character, who remains nameless throughout the story, very whiney and sad, The ending has a “twist” and ends very abruptly. I drudged through, but cant recommend reading this book

Sad and Detached
The narrator cries at funerals in order to support her husband (who does not work and who may or may not be having an affair) and herself. In so doing, she tries to honor the deceased by praising their lives and expressing sorrow at their deaths. In this way, she hopes to add meaning to their lives.

She also searches - and does not find, sadly - meaning in her own life.
It was hard to get into this book. I mean if the narrator doesn't really care if her husband is having an affair, why should I? She brings similar detachment to her other relationships - apparently reserving her emotion for her funeral crying.

I found this to be a sad, unsatisfying read and would not really recommend it.

The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu

Thank you to Book Browse and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

This is a book that I found slow to warm up to, as it is a steady recitation of one woman’s thoughts and perceptions about what are often disappointing or distanced relationships.

The Funeral Cryer opens when the unnamed woman narrator, a professional mourner paid for her dramatic presentations, including tears, has been performing for 10 years.

Associated with bad luck because of her work, she is isolated from most people in her rural village in Northeast China. Sometimes, she admits, she is even suspicious of herself.

The book takes the form of continual internal musings, about family relationships, opportunities taken or not, about the limited choices she had to make, especially her marriage to “The Husband.” Like almost everyone else in the book, neither she nor he has a name, though a few are named by their work. Now in her mid-40’s, she also has an awakening of her physical self, how she feels about her body and how it appears to others, including sexually. For the first time in her life, she wants to treat herself to pretty things and sexual fulfillment.

At times her thoughts seem more like the ruminations of a depressed person, going over and over the same experiences as if that will help change them, though it does not. She feels she is no more than existing, and questions the purpose of life. However, there are small changes in her perceptions and in her actions, that rescue the book from dreariness, and made it a moving and thoughtful read.

The Funeral Cryer long ago accepted the mundane realities of her life: avoided by fellow villagers because of the stigma attached to her job and under-appreciated by her husband, whose fecklessness has pushed the couple close to the brink of break-up. But just when things couldn't be bleaker, she takes a leap of faith—and in so doing things start to take a surprising turn for the better.

Overall this was an engaging read, it really hooked me in but it was not a happy read, it was also a little repetitive which was frustrating, at times. The ending left more questions than answers, there is no tying up with a bow here but it made me think and I quite like that. It was more character driven than plot driven, which can be off-putting for some readers who rely on plot to engage with a book.

The Funeral Cryer is so well written I am ashamed I could not connect to it. With a grown daughter and a husband too busy playing Mahjong, the unnamed storyteller provides for her family being paid to cry and mourn at funerals in her rural village. I felt no empathy for the Chinese culture or for the "tellers" struggles with her mid-life crisis. At the end she seems to be in the same place she was at the beginning.

I was interested in 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 for what we think of as a technically advanced nation. .

However, the book as a whole was difficult for me to enjoy. The unnamed narrator was too passive to attempt to solve the problems in her marriage and her life. I kept hoping she would at least stand up to her abusive husband or find happiness somewhere.. She repeated the same grievances over and over, but never did anything about them.. The author introduced multiple plot lines which were never resolved, and the abrupt ending was disappointing.

Unfortunately, I really struggled with this one. "The Funeral Cryer" is told from the first person perspective of a middle-aged Chinese woman who's made funeral crying her main livelihood. She lives with her husband in rural China, with her day to day centered on the many funerals she attends and then returning home to a sullen and disrespectful husband. The entire atmosphere of this novel is bleak and depressing as we get to see the narrator's world from her eyes; the way she's ignored and avoided in town because of how poorly regarded her profession is, the complaints and derogatory comments her husband makes towards her, her own disregard for herself - it turns the novel into a slow, sluggish read.

There was so much potential in this novel, but it felt weighed down by the flat, one-note writing that felt. dominated by too much dialogue. There's little variety in tone or sentence structure and the main character lacks depth and development throughout, Unfortunately not a novel I would recommend to others.

I was first drawn to "The Funeral Cryer" by the title. I've been interested in the use of the "sin-eater" in Appalachian culture and wondered if the Chinese figure might be at all similar.

Wenyan Lu's "The Funeral Cryer" is the moving story of a woman who supports herself and her husband by singing and crying at funerals. The writing is spare but evocative and describes a bleak existence in a village in China. I didn't notice any dates in the book, but the nameless main character does use bus and taxi transportation when she goes to a neighboring city, as well as getting a ride on a moped.

Not only is the main character nameless; all the characters are nameless. Her husband is the husband. Her adult daughter is the daughter. A local married woman who associates with a number of men is called Hotpot.

Since some call the main character "Big Sister," I will as well. Big Sister's husband was fired from a job and has many excuses as to why he cannot get another job. She dutifully supports them both and tolerates being called stupid and ugly by her unemployed husband. He is quick to take the money she earns though!

Funeral cryers are thought to be cursed and to carry death around with them. The only person who treats Big Sister like a worthwhile person is the barber.

And that is the heart of the story. I recommend "The Funeral Cryer."

Thank you to Hanover Square Press, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Wenyan Lu’s The Funeral Cryer follows an eponymous narrator in rural China who works as a funeral cryer. She participates and quietly observes the people left behind at strangers’ funerals. The narrative also delves into the expected roles of women and how the narrator comes to terms with the fracturing of her marriage. Lu's work is reflective and illustrates one woman’s journey as she figures out what kind of life she wishes to live.

The first person narrator of THE FUNERAL CRYER by Wenyan Lu is both a fully-developed denizen of a rural village in northeast China in real time and Everywoman. As a professional mourner at funerals, she needs to summarize and evaluate the lives of the deceased and lead the mourners through the process of witnessing, grieving, and reengaging, moving forward with their own lives, that is, the cycle from sorrow to joy. Her work, with unique access to the stories and secrets of local residents, forces her to consider the big questions of life’s ultimate meaning and apply these lessons to her own life. It also makes her an outcast in her community, a spokeswoman and harbinger of death, an authentic voice, a nameless witness to the fragility of life.


Add in the fact that the funeral cryer and  the unemployed “husband” began their married life as a comedy duo, for some sense of the novel’s irony and complexity. As an entertainment, this book is not for everyone but it would lend itself to vigorous book club discussion.

This review was posted earlier on the BookBrowse site.

With stilted, almost awkward writing, a thin plot, and one-dimensional characters, this dark and sorrowful book by Wenyan Lu is a disappointment because it has the potential to be so much more.

Taking place in modern-day China but in a remote, rural village that hangs on to the old customs, this is the story of a middle-aged woman who is never named. None of the characters is named except for a few who are given nicknames. The woman is married to a man she refers to as "the husband," and they have one grown daughter, who lives in Shanghai. It is a loveless marriage, bordering on abusive. The husband is unemployed. She works as a funeral cryer. It is her job to lead the mourners in crying. Meanwhile, she suspects her husband, who spends his time playing mahjong, of having an affair with a woman named Hotpot, while she herself is making eyes at the local barber. Because of her job as a funeral cryer, she is thought to bring bad luck and to smell of the dead. She experiences discrimination from others' superstitions about death—so much so that she is refused admittance to her father's nursing home and is ostracized by those in the village.

The underlying theme of the book is death and dying—our fears, anxieties, and trepidations. Being surrounded by death weighs on the woman, and eventually she decides to live a better life. Even though the novel was leading up to this all along, her change of heart is quite sudden, so it feels forced and implausible.

The writing style is characterized by short, jarring sentences and abrupt paragraph changes, while the dialogue is stilted and boring and often doesn't serve to move the story forward, focusing on the mundane aspects of life.

This book caught my eye by the title. It follows the journey of our narrator and her daily life in a village in rural China. She is a funeral cryer to help aid those in their grief during funerals. After she sings joyful songs to help lift up their spirits before the funeral ends.

We never learn her name or anyone in her
life. As if she is detached from everything and everyone. Her occupation is looked down upon everyone around her as they feel it brings death and bad luck. But she continues doing it as it provides for her family and she finds pride in her work.

Throughout the book she struggles with her role as a wife, mother, daughter and a working woman. As if she is just going along with daily life and not finding in really joy in the current life she is living.

Her thoughts throughout the book are beautifully expressed and I feel most women can relate.

The ending surprised me but felt complete.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

The Funeral Crier by Wenyan Lu is a debut novel that explores the life of a professional mourner in rural China. The unnamed narrator, who leads the lamentations at funerals, is shunned by her fellow villagers and neglected by her husband. She faces a bleak and lonely existence, until she decides to take a chance and change her fate.

The novel is a poignant and humorous portrait of a woman who defies the social norms and expectations of her society. Lu skillfully depicts the contrast between the traditional and the modern, the rural and the urban, and the rich and the poor in contemporary China. The Funeral Crier is a subtle and moving story of grief, love, and redemption, with a memorable and witty protagonist. Lu's writing is elegant, wry, and insightful, and she offers a fascinating glimpse into a culture and a profession that are rarely portrayed in literature.

The Funeral Crier is a novel that will appeal to fans of literary fiction, especially those who enjoy stories of ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges. It is a novel that celebrates the power of human resilience and the possibility of transformation. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a refreshing and original read.

The title of the book tells you exactly what the story is about. The narrator muses about her life and family, which by the way, we never learn their names. It is as if it is inconsequential. I enjoyed the book but left feeling sad. I think it is enlightening to read about other peoples lives and experiences that are so different from my own. Great book for a rainy day.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.