Weepers by Peter Mendelsund definitely gets a spot in the Weird Ones list.

Set in the near future that is changed by back-to-back pandemics, a unique new job arises: mourners for hire (because people seriously no longer care for each other). We meet a professional Weeper named Ed and then a mysterious new ‘kid’ who arrives to the job with no past, and virtually no voice who then miraculously changes Everything.

I loved a lot of things here; the short chapters and their unique titles, the slick cowboy poetic vibes from Ed and the overall strangeness of it all. But… I wanted more. Sometimes the background of the story is more interesting than the plot if you know what mean? I did enjoy it though and I’m really looking forward to seeing more thoughts about it. Pub date is coming - July 17th. *thanks to NetGalley and @fsgbooks for this arc opportunity.

This isn't going to be for everyone but it's an intriguing one. Ed leads a band of professional mourners in a dying Southwest town, people who attend funerals and cry. He's a cowboy who envisions himself a poet. And then one day an unnamed kid shows up and Ed becomes obsessed with him. The Kid has an uncanny ability to get everyone sobbing. He's also got a mysterious book with the names of those whose funerals he's attended. The supporting cast for these two is interesting but doesn't get enough attention. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

This book has such a fascinating concept but for whatever reason I just couldn’t connect with it. I love books that explore grief and all the emotions that come with loss but I struggled to feel engaged with this one. I’m not mad I read it by any means but not one that captivated me in the way I had hoped.

A surrealist story featuring cowboys, deserts, feelings, junkies, friendship, messiahs, miracles, mourning, and mass hysteria. Along with a unique take on grief and emotional detachment.

“Weepers” is set in a near future where the pandemics have not stopped, the people have become emotionally numb, and a new job profession has risen. A group of mourners for hire-Weepers. We follow Ed a cowboy poet who is the leader of a small group of weepers. When one morning, someone new comes to town, a scrawny kid with absolutely nothing to his name. He has the power to make people feel again, he leaves a trail of feelings, and then he disappears.

I enjoyed my time with this book. The premise of this book is what originally hooked me. The clever construction of prose with its dark, comedic, depressing moods, the chapter titles being set up like a funeral service, and the overall vibes kept me. Mournful and sad, yet still very much alive through the voice of the MC. The pacing was a bit challenging for me, it might not resonate with everyone, and if you like having answers kept just out of reach, never to be answered-this book is for you.

The objective review:

It grieves me to say I did not finish this book. The whole thing is strangely off-putting I did not enjoy the sharp and direct prose, but it works incredibly well for what Mendelsund is trying to accomplish. The execution of an otherwise fascinating concept was not engaging enough to keep me in. A reflection on grief, apathy and the way our obsessions and emotions shape our relationships and identities might work for you. I may return to it later and do think it is worth exploring.

The ADHD review:

Some people who get paid to cry for others at funerals get a new team member and weird stuff starts happening. Two of them become bros. It's boring but if you're an apathetic mess, it could help shake things up. Who knows, I didn't finish it. 2 stars because the guy can write and grief is a real thing man. Process that stuff, don't pay others to do it for you.

Mourning the dead is always a sight easier than loving the living

Weepers is Peter Mendelsund’s surreal, twisted meditation on grief and emotional detachment in a world grown colder, grittier, and numb with time. Told through the intimate observations of professional weeper Ed, the reader frowns and grins more often than weeps.

The world has gone to hell. Nobody cares about anyone anymore, giving rise to a peculiar new profession born of emotional vacancy. Comically—and sometimes bleakly—narrated, the novel introduces the 302 Union of professional mourners, hired to cry at funerals, wakes, and burials. Business is thriving—until one morning, an unnamed kid arrives. No belongings, no parents, no voice, no past. His presence sparks an inexplicably intense emotional response from everyone around him, in a world that has stopped feeling. What follows is a surrealist tale of messianic projection and self-destructive obsession, represented by the intriguing portrayal of Ed and the kid.

Peter Mendelsund writes with an edge and certainty, almost convincing, exposing the most absurd inner thoughts of Ed, cowboy-poet-weeper. His self-absorption and fixation with the kid are translated by an immediate, disproportionate paternal manner. The kid is nearly silent, frequently disappears, reappearing bruised, grittier, and with a stench; offering no explanations, nurturing Ed’s obsession with who he is and where he keeps going or what he is doing. The plot is secondary to the character study, and the narrative meanders through funeral services and Ed’s life—his inner thoughts and mumbling ever-present.

Peter Mendelsund's prose shines in its architectural prose, cleverly constructing each sentence while the pacing denies the narrative’s urgency to answers. It mirrors grief in its repetitive, senseless, occasionally sharp and humorous state. His sentences shift between bleak aphorism and fever dream, where every image feels a little smudged and unclear, a little dusty at the edges. The chapters are short and snappy, with cowboy poetry intercalating prose. There’s a deliberate avoidance of closure, of clarity—yet Weepers is a compelling and original novel on grief, showing how detachment feels when it wears a person down. The result is a story that sticks—not because of what it says, but because of what it could mean.

Weepers is an accomplished, unhinged character study with a thought-provoking plot that lingers and revels in a tear that never quite falls. There are no resolutions here, only unraveling. If you're looking for answers, look elsewhere. If you're willing to sit in the quiet chaos of a world that forgot how to feel, through contemplative character reading, Weepers might just be for you.

Rating: 4.0/5
Recommended

Thank you, Peter Mendelsund and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for this digital galley via NetGalley in exchange for my honest and personal opinion.

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.