Book Review: The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu

 

Rating: 3.5⭐

Set in contemporary China, The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu is a thought-provoking novel. Our protagonist is a middle-aged woman who makes a living as a professional mourner – a profession she has been engaged in for ten years. With her husband unemployed, hers is their only income. Though enjoys the financial security her profession affords her, most of the villagers tend to avoid her as they believe that she brings bad luck and “smells of the dead”- a sentiment echoed by her husband who eagerly pockets her earnings, spending a substantial portion of same playing mahjong. He is disrespectful of his wife and emotionally abusive and it is hinted that he might be having an affair. Their grown daughter lives in Shanghai and from what we gather, she keeps her distance. The only person who shows the Funeral Cryer any kindness is the barber of their village.

Narrated in the first person by our protagonist, the tone of this novel is quiet and a tad detached for the most part. The writing is sparse yet evocative and the narrative is slow moving. Though this is not the first I heard of the tradition of hiring professional mourners (the “Rudaali” tradition in Rajasthan, India is one of the many variants of the same). I found the author’s detailed description of the role they play fascinating. There are several characters in and around our protagonist’s orbit, but the bulk of the novel revolves around her observations and reflections on her marriage, her relationships with other members of her family, life and death. We follow our protagonist as she goes about her daily life, attends her professional responsibilities with diligence, and her thoughts often drifting to past events. In her present life, the events we may perceive as significant, our protagonist takes in her stride. She tends to absorb much without visible reaction (though we are privy to her thoughts) and only toward the end of the novel do we notice a significant development in the way she perceives her life. I should mention that none of the characters are referred to by name ( including our unnamed protagonist). Though this aspect of the novel took a while to get used to, I thought it was congruous with the protagonist’s personality. Her observations are honest, heartfelt and laced with dry humor. The setting is vivid and I enjoyed getting to learn about the culture, customs and traditions described in this novel. The author has done a remarkable job of depicting the social dynamics and inequality within the community.

While there is a lot to like about this novel, I did feel that the narrative suffered from minor repetition and thought that the nature of the narrative is such that it should have been shorter to be more impactful. Though this is a character-driven novel, I thought the scope for character development was limited in that we were not allowed to explore certain crucial aspects of our protagonist's life deeper such as the dynamic between her and her daughter since it is evident that theirs is a complicated relationship. The ending is a tad ambiguous, but this does not detract from the overall reading experience.

Overall, I did find this to be an immersive and insightful read and look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

Many thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.