Death is an uncomfortable subject yet in all cultures and societies there are jobs like undertakers and pathologists that deal with it on a daily basis. In the Chinese countryside, funeral cryers are a big part of the way people mourn death. Wenyan Lu’s debut novel, The Funeral Cryer, centers around a middle-aged woman in northeast China who goes into this profession to put food on the table when no one else in her family seems to be able to lift a hand. Lu’s book is a heartwarming story about death, but also life, love and finding hope.
The story begins with a funeral of a great-great grandma who dies at the age of 106. The funeral cryer is hired to lead the guests in mourning their elderly relative and neighbor. Lu sets the scene both with the voice of the funeral cryer—the narrator of the book—and the rural setting not far from Dalian.
A suona sounded: the musical instrument of choice for countryside funerals in Northeast China, similar to a trumpet. High-pitched, squeaky and very noisy, like a wolf howling in a gale. It stopped after a minute or so. A tape of slow, heavy music began to play. The crowd fell silent as the coffin was carried into the courtyard from the back gate. It was a redwood coffin with patterns carved onto the lid, wrapped in white silk ribbons.

The characters are never named. The funeral cryer is married to “the husband” and their grown child in Shanghai is “the daughter”. Other characters go by “the barber” for obvious reasons and Hotpot, a nickname for a young female neighbor who is married to an older man but has lots of boyfriends on the side. The narrator’s mother is called Mum and her sibling “the brother”. Countryside life may seem simple to city folk but the characters in this village are anything but country bumpkins.
The husband is verbally abusive, hasn’t worked in years and finds farming jobs beneath him. So instead of going out to find a job, the husband spends his days playing mahjong and—as it turns out—seeing Hotpot, although he won’t admit to an affair. On top of her unsavory home life, the funeral cryer is all but ostracized by her neighbors because of her profession; few want to be associated with someone so close to death. Still, she tries to keep an open mind.
When people said I brought bad luck, I couldn’t really care too much. I had to make a living. Sometimes I thought perhaps I already had the immune system to deal with the bad things including death. There was an old saying: You defeat poison with poison.
The barber however treats the funeral cryer as a human, not a pariah. Their friendship develops alongside a number of deaths in the community. With each job, the funeral cryer learns more about herself and how she wants to deal with the future deaths of her family and herself: will she cry and will they have a nice outfit to wear at their funerals?
As much as the book deals with death, it equally deals with life and a dysfunctional one at that. The funeral cryer feels resigned that the husband is enamored with Hotpot and that the daughter will live in Shanghai for good. The barber may be able to offer the funeral cryer the companionship she has yet to find, but he’s also involved with a long-term girlfriend. The only certainty in all of these relationships is eventual death.
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