A group for criers for hire. Professional weepers. To attend your funerals and turn on the waterworks. To fill the seats and set the mood.

"I am a weeper as soon as I awake until the moment I sleep".

Weepers puts a unique spin on grief fiction. Ed and his fellow co-workers willingly attend funerals, immersing themselves in the act of grieving for a few bucks a day. It's their day job, stuffing themselves into grief-wear like we stuff ourselves into corporate-wear. They sit in front of a casket like we sit in front of a computer screen. They ball their eyes out in public like we ball ours out in the privacy of the restroom stalls.

To the others' chagrin, Ed befriends the 'kid', a newbie who starts showing up in the mornings at the lot where they wait for Reg to call their names and assign them their gigs. The kid is practically mute, giving up one word answers when pushed to interact, and Ed becomes overly protective of him when the group of them begin to realize that, while he appears to be effective at the whole Weepers thing, he himself has yet to shed an actual tear. Which, like, defeats the whole purpose of the gig, right?

Oh man, I loved the narrator's voice. This self fancied cowboy with his famous mustache and his middling poetry. This overthinker. This friend till the end.

And while I enjoyed this book overall, I wished it had spent more time focused on the actual Weepers, and less directly on the kid and his weird behaviors and Ed's obsession with him, because it felt at times like the Weeper storyline seemed to get put onto the back burner, which is a shame because, while yes, I see now how it was necessary to move things forward, I really liked the concept of the Weepers and the strange jobs they made a living at.

Dark, comedic, and yes, even a little gosh darn depressing, Weepers shines a light on the weirdness of death and the fear of being remembered by a horribly forgettable epitaph. It's about giving it your all when all you have to give is a good cry.

Peter Mendelsund is clearly a poet and a wordsmith. The Weepers is a bleak dystopian book whose words flow, or should I say weep, off the pages.
The world is dark, hot, dusty and moves at a slow pace. Think rusty trailer homes, empty whisky bottles and dead flies curled up at the base of ripped window screens. People living here have become devoid of feelings. Being able to call forth emotions has become unusual. Families are actually willing to pay strangers to bring their emotional sensitivity to funerals to help them find their sorrow. These weepers are still able to summon the tears that have dried up in others.
Ed, a weeper, lives alone but is haunted by memories of his violent father. His friends and girlfriend are also weepers. This country’s suffering is their gain as the book takes their sad presence from funeral home to funeral home. America is also ripe for anger. A mass shooting occurs and the church is ringed by “gun nut fascist fan boys” who grow violent towards the victims families. There is no kindness to be found anywhere.
In the story one of the weepers is a young boy referred to as “The Kid”. He seems to anger everyone he meets however Ed takes him under his wing. Mendelsund’s book fails to give a good explanation as to the full meaning behind this central character. It is one of the book’s weak points. Ed’s meager life moves back and forth but it is not plot driven. The beauty of Mendulsen’s writing and the creativity of the plot helped me stick with this book to the end. I cannot recommend Weepers but look forward to seeing what else he writes.
I would like to thank NetGalley for an ARC of this book. These opinions are my own.

Peter Mendelsund is one of the most interesting writers around. I've read both "What We See When We Read" and "Cover," both of which fascinated me because it's clear my inner world is nothing like Peter Mendelsund's, and yet he writes in declarative sentences, as if everyone should understand him and agree with his way of thinking. This is in no way a criticism. It made both of those books wonderful and surprising reads for me.

I was drawn to this book because thematically it reminded me of "Ways of Dying" by the great South African novelist Zakes Mda--Mda's first novel I believe. I loved reading the Mda novel more, because the story felt organic and so connected with Mda's culture, and Mendelsund's book seemed a little cold by comparison. But I liked Weepers, even so, again for the way Mendelsund's manner of expressing himself, of arranging words, is so different from my way of expressing myself and arranging words. It's hard to explain.. I'm sorry I haven't yet made time for "Same, Same," which has been on my shelf for years waiting to be read.

Interesting premise about a vague dystopia where people work as professional mourners, visiting strangers’ funerals to either whip up the other guests into emotions or be the tears shed for the departed. The writing style, however, was difficult for me to read and I ultimately have to DNF at 60%. There’s a purposeful dryness that contradicts the surreal subject matter, which reminded me of Blood Meridian, another book that I really had to work to finish.

Meditative book with short chapters about a near future when the pandemics haven't stopped and professional mourners have come back as a way to mourn the dead. We get a focus on the leader of a small crew of Weepers as they're called, and what happens when a new person rolls into town and decides to join. The chapter titles are all done up like a funeral service too, which is a neat touch. Solid, slow, reflective read.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This had so much potential, but a lot of the messaging in the story was lost on me. There were some great elements to it, but the characters were just not developed enough for me, and I did not feel a massive urge to keep picking this up.

The concept of this book is what drew me in. Once o began reading the relationship that the author had with the boy became confusing and the plot just seemed flat once he was introduced into the story line. Cool idea but just wasn’t a read that held my interest.

This book just didn't work for me. I think the basic concept was interesting enough, but then it wasn't fleshed out. The main character was hard to connect with and his obsession with "The Boy" for a big part of the book was confusing and not compelling.

Ultimately, it felt like the author was trying too hard to make something that was "important literature" ala Cormac McCarthy or James Joyce (with the lack of quotation marks when someone is speaking and the meandering almost stream-of-consciousness plot, respectively.)

A melancholy and surreal neo-Western about a band of professional mourners who offer their tear-laden eyes to a desiccated world. It evokes Station Eleven, with its troupe of performers bringing their artistry and gifts to a world now bereft of them.

Our narrator, Ed, has a very distinct worldview and his colorful oratory style held me in thrall throughout. For instance, he describes a perky character as having, “...all that vim just soda-popping through her veins,” and someone who is even-keeled as, “...sticking to his fucking row, sure as shooting, regular as rust.”

The vibes in this book are just off the charts, and I really dug how it all played out. Mendelsund has crafted a unique tale that will surely stick in my craw. It’s sad and mournful and centered around death, yet it pulses with life in Ed’s eyes and through his narration.

What I found interesting: the voice, hints at the broader context of environmental collapse and the reason for numbness and weepers; irony. What I did not find interesting: Christianity and all allusions pertaining to it (I grew up and live in a very Christian country, but I don't care for it at all); cowboys. All in all, it's not a bad novel, I just did not quite gel with it.

"Weepers" by Peter Mendelsund is an absurdist work of fiction in which the majority of society can no longer feel emotions. Instead, people hire "emoters," specifically professional weepers, to express feelings on their behalf. You can even hire a weeper to sob at a funeral or for other occasions!

This novel prompts readers to reflect on society. Are people simply apathetic, sociopathic, or overly rational? Can they feel emotions even if they don’t display them? Is the commodification of emotions becoming the new way to keep up with the Joneses?

The story serves as a messianic tale about grief and redemption. While I enjoyed this novel, I found the pacing challenging at certain points. Although it may not resonate with everyone, I believe fans of works like Thomas Pynchon’s "The Crying of Lot 49," Ashley Hutson’s "One’s Company," Tony Tulathimutte’s "Rejection," or Italo Calvino’s "If on a Winter’s Night, a Traveler" might appreciate this funny and compelling fever dream of a novel, which offers a unique perspective on society.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC. I will be thinking about this novel for some time.