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 underappreciated by her husband, whose fecklessness has pushed the couple close to the brink of breakup. 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.
Lu’s prose is unromantic and unadorned, giving the chapters an ascetic, almost nightmarish quality where the protagonist retreads the same topics ... The funeral crier’s observations are matter-of-fact and naïve, profound in their blankness. This may strike some readers as wry and self-deprecating, and the cultural dissonance as purposefully drawn out. But those more familiar with the dogma of rural China may recognize the smallness of thought, life, ambition and self-image as tragic, not humorous.
Lu’s book is a heartwarming story about death, but also life, love and finding hope ... As much as the book deals with death, it equally deals with life and a dysfunctional one at that.
The title character’s wry, sad, and insightful inner voice is the star here. Her meditations on grief, death, love, and duty are full of poetry and longing.
