Review by Booklist Review
Stuck in an unsatisfying marriage, the unnamed narrator of this spare novel makes a living as a funeral cryer, someone who cries, makes a speech, and sings at a funeral in an effort to unleash the grief of the attendees. Though it's a stigmatized role among the villagers, it pays well, and the grieving often confide in the narrator, providing her with a sense of purpose. Referring to others only through nicknames or their relationship to her (the Husband, the Daughter, HotPot, etc.), she seems emotionally distant from all those around her, wryly observing the mundanities of life, until a newcomer to the village piques her interest and she starts questioning her marriage, her attraction to this new man, and her own happiness and mortality. This is not an action-packed novel; instead it is a meditation on family, love, loyalty, and women's roles in Chinese society. Recommended for readers who enjoy quiet novels about women questioning their life circumstances, such as Fault Lines (2021), by Emily Itami.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT In a small rural village in northeast China, the eponymous narrator of this novel has lived with her husband of over 20 years. Their marriage has not been a happy one, and the husband is often abusive. He also does not work, so, 10 years ago, she got a job as a funeral cryer. While it is traditional to hire a cryer for a Chinese funeral, friends and neighbors consider the narrator bad luck and ostracize her. Her father's care home even forbids her to visit. The funeral cryer's only avenue for socialization comes in the form of her visits to the barber. Beaten down by her world, she has resigned herself to the sameness and joyless existence of her life. When the barber and Hotpot, a recent widow who is pregnant, interrupt this existence, she clings to them, even though she is not sure of her own feelings for them. 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. VERDICT Perfect for literary-fiction fans, especially those who enjoyed other extraordinary novels about ordinary people, such as Lydia Millet's Dinosaurs and Zorrie by Laird Hunt.--Lynnanne Pearson
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
