AUDIOBOOK
About
Ed is a weeper. A professional weeper.
He's a card-carrying member of an eccentric union hired to cry at funerals, wakes, services, and burials. It's an odd job, but his services are sorely needed these days, as the town, the region, the country as a whole has become more or less numb. No one is able to summon a shred of human emotion whatsoever. Not anymore. (What'd be the point? The world's already gone to hell.)
So there's always work for Ed and his colleagues. But all those cries can wear a man down, and the tears don't flow quite like they used to, even for a consummate pro like Ed.
Then one morning, a stranger comes to town. A scrawny kid with no belongings, no parents, no name, no past. And at precisely the moment of his arrival, people begin to experience something new. Something strange. An onslaught of unbidden feelings, unfamiliar feelings, too many feelings.
A surrealist story of mourning and messiahs, deserts and droughts, cowboys and junkies, miracles and mass hysteria, the lure of despair and the solace of friendship. Peter Mendelsund's Weepers is a novel for this age: our age of anesthesia and anger.
He's a card-carrying member of an eccentric union hired to cry at funerals, wakes, services, and burials. It's an odd job, but his services are sorely needed these days, as the town, the region, the country as a whole has become more or less numb. No one is able to summon a shred of human emotion whatsoever. Not anymore. (What'd be the point? The world's already gone to hell.)
So there's always work for Ed and his colleagues. But all those cries can wear a man down, and the tears don't flow quite like they used to, even for a consummate pro like Ed.
Then one morning, a stranger comes to town. A scrawny kid with no belongings, no parents, no name, no past. And at precisely the moment of his arrival, people begin to experience something new. Something strange. An onslaught of unbidden feelings, unfamiliar feelings, too many feelings.
A surrealist story of mourning and messiahs, deserts and droughts, cowboys and junkies, miracles and mass hysteria, the lure of despair and the solace of friendship. Peter Mendelsund's Weepers is a novel for this age: our age of anesthesia and anger.
Related Subjects
Reviews
"This audiobook is an offbeat, avant-garde look at the American Southwest as seen through the eyes of a poet, philosopher, cowboy, and "weeper" named Ed. Weepers are professional mourners hired to add tangible signs of grief to funerals. Narrator David Aaron Baker brings Ed to life. His warm and folksy voice is instantly likable. Ed's verbal ruminations are sometimes profound, often profane, and darkly comic. A central focus is the arrival of a strange but charismatic young colleague he refers to as "the kid." He is a messianic figure, a cult leader, and a drug addict. This story exposes the lack of empathy in our society and highlights a world in which mourning occasionally needs to be performed by professionals. D.L.G. � AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine"
AudioFile