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The World More Full of Weeping

by Robert J. Wiersema (Goodreads Author)

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 149 ratings · 39 reviews

Eleven-year-old Brian Page spends every waking moment in the forest behind the house where he lives with his father. But forests are always deeper than anyone can know. Secrets are hidden in the eternal twilight of the trees. Those secrets emerge into light when Brian disappears in the forest, as his father did three decades before. His father, however, came home with no m...more

Paperback, 101 pages

Published March 31st 2010 by Chizine Publications (first published September 15th 2009)

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Mar 14, 2010 Nathan Burgoine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Having read and loved BEFORE I WAKE by Wiersema a few years ago, I was quite pleased to see this title become available. As a lover of short fiction as well, I wasn't daunted by the slim volume, and will say that Wiersema has once again managed to blend quality characterization and a mystical plotline into one.

What appears to be at first a very simple plot hook - child goes missing in the woods behind his home - soon turns into a mystery with a sense of supernatural foreboding to it, as the fath...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

This compact short story/novella captivated from the outset and held on till the end. Wiersema was a new author to me, the book a gift from my bibliophile, librarian, and reader-extraordinaire cousin, and I appreciated his appropriation of fairy tale into a contemporary story line. The chilling tale, with its simple prose and suspenseful story line, would be appropriate for a YA audience.

With well-drawn characters and setting (the latter based on his own childhood hometown in rural western Cana...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This creepy little book is part horror story and part fairy tale. A divorced dad, Jeff, lives with his 11-year-old son Brian in rural British Columbia. Their home sits next to a forest which Brian spends all of his free time exploring. One day Brian goes missing and from that point forward we see the story from both Jeff and Brian’s points of view.

I knew almost nothing about this book when I picked it up. The cover is gorgeous and the title comes from William Butler Yeats' poem "The Stolen Chil...more

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Oct 09, 2010 Scott Candey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

The World More Full of WeepingThe World More Full of Weeping by Robert J. Wiersema

I picked this up based on the title, a reference to a Yeats poem, "The Stolen Child." The World More Full Of Weeping falls somewhere between a long short story and a novella.

The story follows a young boy from a fractured, loving family as he seeks solace and freedom in the expansive woods behind his house. In the woods, he's befriended by a young presence who reveals the mysticism of the forest to him. The relation...more

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Oct 06, 2009 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars

he World More Full of Weeping, its title unabashedly ripped from the W. B. Yeats poem, “The Stolen Child” is a new novella (almost a short story) by author Robert J. Wiersema. ChiZine Publications is a relative newcomer to the publisher scene but as the print arm of the Chiarscuro ‘zine brings with it a wealth of experience and talent. Wiersema’s debut novel Before I Wake achieved quite a bit of buzz on its release but slipped beneath my radar but, having read the chilling tale that is The World...more he World More Full of Weeping, its title unabashedly ripped from the W. B. Yeats poem, “The Stolen Child” is a new novella (almost a short story) by author Robert J. Wiersema. ChiZine Publications is a relative newcomer to the publisher scene but as the print arm of the Chiarscuro ‘zine brings with it a wealth of experience and talent. Wiersema’s debut novel Before I Wake achieved quite a bit of buzz on its release but slipped beneath my radar but, having read the chilling tale that is The World More Full of Weeping I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out on whatever Wiersema plans in the future.

Here’s ChiZine’s description of the novel:

Eleven-year-old Brian Page spends every waking moment in the forest behind the house where he lives with his father. But forests are always deeper than anyone can know. Secrets are hidden in the eternal twilight of the trees. Those secrets emerge into light when Brian disappears in the forest, as his father did three decades before. His father, however, came home with no memory of the events in the depths of the forest. What has drawn Brian away? Will he emerge, shuddering and broken, as his father did, or will the forests close around him, as they have done so often before?

I should perhaps confess that one of the pieces of horror/supernatural fiction that most-influenced me as a reader is H. P. Lovecraft’s The Silver Key. It is one of Lovecraft’s few stories (that I can remember anyway) that features some rather brilliant descriptions of a natural setting. Passages such as:

Then, when he was free, he felt in his blouse pocket for the key; and being reassured, skipped off across the orchard to the rise beyond, where the wooded hill climbed again to heights above even the treeless knoll. The floor of the forest was mossy and mysterious, and great lichened rocks rose vaguely here and there in the dim light like Druid monoliths among the swollen and twisted trunks of a sacred grove. Once in his ascent Randolph crossed a rushing stream whose falls a little way off sang runic incantations to the lurking fauns and aegipans and dryads.

Are just one amongst many that managed, for me at least, to help recapture the wonder and mystery of the forest. Later I went on and read Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood which for me cast the forest in a slightly more antediluvian light and, like Lovecraft’s The Silver Key, manages to link the forest to dreams. Both works left their mark on me as a reader and one might argue my enjoyment of The World More Full of Weeping is deeply influenced by own personal experiences with fictional forests (and perhaps growing up in suburban New Jersey never having had a ‘real’ forest/back-country to explore lends the deep forest a little mystique, though the Pine Barrens do cast a rather long shadow).

One of the first things that struck me about The World More Full of Weeping was the narrative structure that Wieresma uses. The novel starts in the present up until the point that Brian disappears when the narrative splits with sections following Brian’s early explorations into the forest alternating with the reactions of his parents and the search for their missing son. It is an interesting juxtaposition between the weight of emotion experienced by parents whose child is missing and the wonder and excitement of a child experiencing the magic of the woods and his first love. The temporal nature of the narrative, the literal narrative split between past a present, is I think further tied to Jeff Page’s missing memories of his own disappearance. The more Jeff is exposed to his own missing past the closer the two narrative threads come together. The point where past and present collide, Brian’s final journey into the forest and Jeff’s recollection of his own experiences in the woods, results in a startling explosion of emotion that despite the heavy events occurring up until that point, had more or less been lacking in the earlier portion of the novel.

There is a palpable weight to the final pages of the novel the shadow of which is only glimpsed during Brian’s mysterious explorations with the enigmatic Carly. The desperation of that final section left me with a mix of emotions that echo Jeff’s own sadness and longing. That strange is perhaps a result of the horror of a parent missing but moreso I think the sudden revelation what is lost in the transition from childhood to adulthood; the sudden sense of bereavement due to the lost mystery of the hidden world and the stark reality of world without magic. Or maybe that last bit comes more from me then The World More Full of Weeping. When the dividing line between self and fiction blurs it is something that is truly wonderful and it is something that The World More Full of Weeping achieves in spades.(less)

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Jul 19, 2012 Reeka (BoundbyWords) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Based on other reviews, I think I expected more out of this book, fantasy wise. I pictured talking trees and dancing animals-straight Pocahontas style. But the subtle darkness I found instead was just as pleasing, if not more welcomed.

This novella of a mere 77 pages had me deep rooted in Hendersen, BC, all green fields and thick forests. Brian spends most of his waking hours in that exact forest, where he's most at ease and free. His father spends his time in his shop, grease elbowed and waist d...more Based on other reviews, I think I expected more out of this book, fantasy wise. I pictured talking trees and dancing animals-straight Pocahontas style. But the subtle darkness I found instead was just as pleasing, if not more welcomed.

This novella of a mere 77 pages had me deep rooted in Hendersen, BC, all green fields and thick forests. Brian spends most of his waking hours in that exact forest, where he's most at ease and free. His father spends his time in his shop, grease elbowed and waist deep underneath his cars. Alternating narration between the two, with Brian's narration being the events before his disappearance, the story opens with Brians unhappiness about having to spend spring break in the city with his mother, a precursor to ultimately moving in with her. I emphasized with Brian's glumness instantly, I loathed having to switch between houses every other weekend, why couldn't I just stay in one house? I hated packing the most.

During one of his treks in the woods, Brian is startled by a young girl named Carly, who he is immediately mystified by. Together they delve into parts of the forest Brian could never have imagined existed. It is here that the book begins to take on a magic realism feel, and I couldn't help but want it to go on for another hundred pages. Brian becomes beautifully carefree and unburdened, and the author does a great job of placing us right at his heels- I smelled, felt and saw every petal, every glistening dew drop. When Brian doesn't return from the woods one night, I felt the loss at my core before his father does. Before his father is faced with himself; himself as a father, an ex-husband, and a young boy, who had once, himself, went missing in quite the same manner his son did-though he holds no recollection of it.

I felt a loss not for his disappearance, but for the world in the woods that the author crafted so effortlessly. I wanted to stay with Brian-to watch his musings, witness what he discovered, and felt, and loved. This book was small, but was so big in so many other ways. It had a few typos and grammatical errors, but such small things were overshadowed by the beauty of the writing and feeling of pure and simple magic. I am looking forward to picking up Before I Wake by this author.(less)

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Feb 14, 2010 Steve Lowe rated it 4 of 5 stars

I’m going to try my hand at a review. Robert J. Wiersema may weep at the incoherency of this attempt at his book, “The World More Full of Weeping”, but here we go anyway. Published by the independent house ChiZine Publications out of Toronto, the story is just 76 pages, plus some notes and acknowledgements at the end, a very fast read due both to the length, as well as the economy of Wiersema’s words. There are no wasted lines here, no distracting tangents or subplots, and this is one of the boo...more I’m going to try my hand at a review. Robert J. Wiersema may weep at the incoherency of this attempt at his book, “The World More Full of Weeping”, but here we go anyway. Published by the independent house ChiZine Publications out of Toronto, the story is just 76 pages, plus some notes and acknowledgements at the end, a very fast read due both to the length, as well as the economy of Wiersema’s words. There are no wasted lines here, no distracting tangents or subplots, and this is one of the book’s major strengths. It is focused, straight forward, clean, and above all, full of depth and meaning.

The story revolves around Jeff, a divorced dad, and his 11-year old son Brian. They live in Jeff’s his childhood home in rural British Columbia, on the edge of a forest. One day, Brian does not come home from his regular trek into the woods. He speaks of a strange girl, Carly, the day before he disappears. The two storylines follow Jeff as he and his ex-wife cope with the search for their missing son, and Brian in the days leading up to, and including, his disappearance. We learn along the way that Jeff himself was once lost in the same woods when he was the exact same age as Brian, and that he also knew Carly at that age.

Carly is a mysterious girl who seems to materialize from the forest and takes Brian on amazing journeys therein, discovering a different world within the trees that he did not see before. Brian begins to care for Carly and wants nothing more than to be with her, but he is to move to Vancouver with his mother. His parents worry that he is too much of a loner, that he won’t have any friends as he grows into a young man. Then he walks off into the forest one day and does not come back, sparking the search. I won’t go further lest I spoil the plot.

To me, the forest signified the transition from childhood to adulthood. Jeff got lost in the forest at 11, as does his own son. The line “Like father like son” is repeated throughout the story. Brian is a loner, who enjoys the woods the way a kid should, but he’s at that age where things begin to change. What you enjoyed as a child changes as you mature, and Carly represents an opportunity for them to stay a child. Whether or not the author intended this, I’m not sure, but that’s how I read it. The parents divorced, Brian would be moving in with his mom, leaving behind the woods and Carly, or in other words, leaving behind his youth and losing that part of him, probably forever, and that frightened him more than anything.

The story is well told and moving. Wiersema captures the father’s desperation, as well as the mother’s, and the awkward state between them. When the story focuses on Brian, we are lost in an 11-year old’s world and the voice for both narratives is strong and true. And the economy of words shows up well in this example: Jeff is staring out his kitchen window at the gathering dark as the search teams tromp through the forest. The light is waning, as are the hopes of finding Brian before the cold dark of night descends. Wiresema writes, “… In the window, the world was gradually disappearing, being replaced by his distorted reflection.” – For me, that line describes the disappearance of his son, the boy, and in its place, he sees himself, distorted by the window, changed, as his son will be if they find him. When the boy leaves, a man barely recognizable replaces him.

I would be remiss not to mention a couple things my editor’s eye noticed. First, there are an abundance of adverbs (-ly words) which most beginning writers are drilled to avoid like the plague, but I won’t argue that “rule” here and now. Toward the end of the story, there are one or two mistakes – a typo, a shift in tense. I note them simply to note them. There may have been others, but I was too swept up in the story to notice or care, and they were no more abundant than the number of errors/typos I recently found in a novel from a big-name publishing house. Shit happens. Overall, the editing and production of this book are very good. And for an independent publisher, the book itself is striking and impressive, and worth the money paid for a physical copy. Overall, this is an emotional, intense, fast read that will likely linger with me for some time. - This would be 4.5 stars if I had that option.
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Jan 27, 2010 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

For such a short story, this turned out to be really absorbing and pretty powerful. The forest in which much of the story takes is described more completely and vividly than the rest of the setting, which made sense considering the events of the story (which I won't spoil here). The father and son relationship at the heart of it all is really well developed, but there are also quite a few secondary characters introduced for such a quick read and that became distracting because none of them reall...more

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Mar 04, 2011 Belinda Frisch rated it 3 of 5 stars

At no point in The World More Full of Weeping did I actually care if they found the boy in the woods. It's a typical first crush story--the boy finds the girl in the woods and quickly grows so attached that he cannot be without her--set against the parents, divorced (though I don't think that lended to anything in the novel, really, other than the boy was being sent to live with his mother and some speculated it was why he ran away) and the search party hashing out similar events to when the boy...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Darrell Reimer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Robert Wiersema dusts off a very old and very dark fable and pulls it into the here and now, in his short novella The World More Full of Weeping . The story is relayed in a deceptively straightforward manner, that cuts a direct route to the payoff. But the real surprises occur once the reader has had time to reflect on the subtle and disturbing connections layered throughout.

To say anymore is to rob readers of a short and powerful bit of writing. This can be read as a stand-alone work, or as a t...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Claudia rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have long contended that children are born with unique abilities; the ability to dance and sing, the ability to fly, and the ability to make art. Those skills are quickly lost when faced with ridicule, disdain, and disinterest by adults. It's a wonder children don't just write us off immediately, but instead they swallow it all and become artless, unhappy, earthbound heavyweights. This story is about that but in much prettier words. I loved this small treasure because it reminded me to encoura...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Christie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Canadian writer Robert J. Wiersema packs a punch with his novella, The World More Full of Weeping. On the day before going to spend a week with his mother in the city, eleven-year-old Brian disappears in the woods behind his father’s house. Wiersema manages to capture both the frantic search, and Brian’s journey in the forsest in 77 short pages.

Part of the novella’s success can be attributed to Wiersema’s split narrative. Beginning in present day, Brian shares breakfast with his father who expla...more Canadian writer Robert J. Wiersema packs a punch with his novella, The World More Full of Weeping. On the day before going to spend a week with his mother in the city, eleven-year-old Brian disappears in the woods behind his father’s house. Wiersema manages to capture both the frantic search, and Brian’s journey in the forsest in 77 short pages.

Part of the novella’s success can be attributed to Wiersema’s split narrative. Beginning in present day, Brian shares breakfast with his father who explains to him that his mother will be picking him up at four. Brian clearly doesn’t want to go, but lacks the ability, it seems, to articulate his feelings. Instead, he tells his father, Jeff, that “Carly said you wouldn’t understand.”

Carly’s true identity is just one of the mysteries of The World More Full of Weeping. Who is Carly? At first she just seems like a girl Brian meets in the woods. But after Brian goes missing and Jeff calls over to his neighbour John’s to see if he’s seen him, the mention of her name causes John to encourage Jeff to call “Chuck Minette at the Search and Recuse…call him right now.”

Many years ago, Jeff also went missing in the woods only to turn up the next day. When men from the community come to help look for Brian, it’s clear everyone thinks his disappearance might be a case of “like father, like son,” with the same happy outcome.

While the search for Brian continues, we see him in the woods with Carly, who is always in the same thin dress despite the uncertain March weather, her cheeks “pink and rosy.” Carly knows secret places in the woods, places Brian has not ever seen. She asks him if he wants to “see more hidden things” and promises she can show him “a whole hidden world in the forest.”

There are no concrete answers in The World More Full of Weeping. The only certainty is that when given the opportunity Jeff and Brian made different choices. Perhaps some readers will take comfort in Brian’s decision, but for me I can’t quite get the picture of Jeff on his knees, crying for what is lost.

A magical and profoundly moving story.
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Feb 24, 2013 Francesca Forrest rated it 5 of 5 stars

This story unfolded exactly as I wanted it to. It's what I always dream for and what few stories seem willing to offer--but more can't be said without spoilers (or perhaps even that little bit is a spoiler, if you stop and think about it).

(view spoiler)...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Jessica Strider rated it 4 of 5 stars

The World More Full of Weeping is a 77 page novella told from two points of view. The first is the view of Jeff Page, as he discovers his son hasn't returned from playing in the woods. The second is that of the son, Brian, as he meets a girl in the woods who shows him marvelous things.

It's a sweet, compelling story of love and loss. And a reminder that doing what you believe is best for someone doesn't usually take into account their own preferences on the matter.

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Nov 05, 2009 Laurel rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a small novella, almost a long short story. As its a Canadian work, many may not find it on their local bookshelves, but if you get the chance, please pick it up. I can't say much without giving away the magic, but if you want a quiet hour, remembering why we loved darker fairy tales as a child, give this a try. I had to force myself to slow down, not to race ahead to the end. Well worth a read!

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Jan 30, 2013 Sandy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wouldn't class this as a novel. It was only 68 pages of actual book and the rest was an essay and notes. The story was wonderful and left me thinking in the end, but to me that's what it was, a story. I would recommend reading it for the 2$ I paid for it but not for the cover price of 12.95$.

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Nov 24, 2010 Erin rated it 2 of 5 stars

I bought this on my Kindle mistakenly thinking it was a full Novel, only to find out it was a Novella. I'm not used to reading short stories, but I found this one to be a great disappoint compared to the last book that I read by Robert J. Wiersema ('Before I Wake'). I was geared up for a great book and felt like there was no plot development what-so-ever.

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Sep 08, 2011 D. Alexander Ward rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novella by Robert J. Wiersema is one of the most beautiful and haunting things that I have read in recent memory. The prose is so infused with a sense of place that at times I felt like I was reading a fine bit of southern writing. (Which I have always been in love with, of course.) The end was not what I was expecting but it really did hit home for me. Like others who have reviewed this work, I'm reluctant to go over too much in this review because I feel that it would rob a potential read...more

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Feb 21, 2010 NG rated it 3 of 5 stars

Beautiful prose and an spooky story create a very intimate atmosphere that is at once familiar and "other". But the story ended to abruptly for my taste, I wanted a fully sprung plot, more character development, and additional pages to sink my teeth into.

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Sep 12, 2010 Corey rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't want to give too much away; the story is short, precise, and nary a word wasted with an economy of prose that should be taught in schools (I should take the course, definitely, oh yes indeedy do). Wiersema crafts an evocative yarn of tragedy and magic, very similiar in tone to the recent Tim Lebbon piece The Thief of Broken Toys (also great, and also a ChiZine release, my new favourite publisher). Wiersema also proves himself an expert creator of place, erecting a whole town from very fe...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Kirsty rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this novella, as the plot and setting are so gorgeous. But the prose was just so dull – not a single sentence surprised me or made me feel anything. I'd have given it 2 stars, but the lovely ending pushed it up to 3.

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May 23, 2011 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

Before I Wake was WAY better than this one. Still a good story, but it just wasn't as good as his first book. Maybe because it was a novella instead of a novel? I'm not a big short story fan either; I like a fully developed book.

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Nov 04, 2010 MIchael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I think this novella had a few problems with it (mostly the ENTIRE story being detailed on the back cover so there were no surprises in reading it), but it was engaging from beginning to end, I read it in one sitting and loved it.

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Jan 23, 2013 Monique Pihl rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who enjoys a haunting, realistic fantasy

Recommended to Monique by: Ley Fraser

Beautifully written! Like something out of a dream. Only took me two days to finish. Its a very short novel. But its brevity is due to the quality of the writing. I look forward to reading more by Wiersema.

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Dec 18, 2010 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: holiday-bookaday10

Brian loves the woods behind his house, and one day, he disappears into them. that's really all I can say. I loved this, but I was unprepared for its brevity (it was an e-book). I wanted more!

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Feb 05, 2013 Samantha Adkins rated it 5 of 5 stars

Couldn't put this lovely novella down. I loved Bedtime Stories and was delighted to find Wiersema has more books. Must keep reading!

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Jan 19, 2010 Christie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, fiction

Concise. I like the point of view. I don't want to say much to give anything away, but it feels like the adult side of a piece of kid lit.

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Jan 01, 2013 Christopher King rated it 3 of 5 stars

Much shorter than expected, or maybe I just enjoyed the read so much that I was saddened when I finished. Either way, a good read.

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Aug 27, 2011 Bracken rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow, that was profoundly sad. Exactly what I was in the mood for. Perfectly told, and the perfect length (77 pages).

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Apr 24, 2010 Jenn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good quick read - fanciful but not absurd. Neat to read about random places in Victoria too...

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