Martyr!: A Novel

I’m not much of a poetry reader, but I think I’d love Kaveh Akbar’s. This book is a masterpiece, one of the first books in a long time I’ve started over and read the beginning of after finishing. I haven’t read it a second time all the way, but I think I will before too long, and 100% read this book again in 10 years or so.The main character is both aware of and not aware of his own foibles, perhaps like most of us? He wants to think he’s original and yet knows he is not. All ideas I assume the author struggles with, too. Perhaps all artists do in one form or another?I’m not sure I completely understand the ending yet, but I’m also not sure it’s supposed to be black and white. Or that choosing love is like a form of death… but I don’t want to spoil anything.I can see this book being too poetic and metaphorical and “complicated” (it’s not really, thus the quotation marks) for some readers. But someone much smarter than me once said that the best books can be enjoyed twice, at least: once for pure enjoyment and a second time looking for all the “so whats.” I think the Great Gatsby was the example I’m remembering, but sure there are thousands. Some of the symbolism is straight forward, some is personal, some is universal, but I’m sure many an English PhD student (or whatever) could write a paper on the description of language as an idea and both priceless and worthless way of describing life. A few papers about death and light and lies about angels we are all told to, what, make us feel better or feel worse? Again, religion is just language: it’s both powerful and utterly insufficient, like describing love or grief… but it’s all we have until we learn what this death thing is really all about, which we all will eventually.

I confess I had a hard time finishing this novel, getting stuck and unmotivated about halfway through. It’s worth plowing ahead because it does get better, and is beautifully written the whole way through.

While this was not a book that compelled me to turn pages or to binge read, it was like a gift I gave myself every time I read a few more pages. By the end, I did have to find out what would happen next, and the writing continued feeling like a gift. Wonderful book!

Interesting characters with identity crisis presented from the view of Iranian background of one family. The creation of these problems stems from war and the cultural rigidity in Iran. The main character Cyrus Shams loses his Mom as a baby and is raised by a father who runs from that culture to settle in America whose government shot down the commercial airline leaving Iranian airspace on which his Mom was a passenger. Cyrus is lost in personal national identity and sexual coming of age. Never really received any nurturing growing up and has an issue with connections that are portrayed beautifully by this author as he tries to find purpose for his life. Other characters get good development including his mom Roya Sham.

I didn't like Martyr! during my first attempt at reading it. So I put it down, read some other great books, then picked it up again and couldn't put it down (except when I went to sleep, of course). I didn't like the parts where Cyrus is describing his day-to-day (like, who wants to hear about another college kid with a drug/drinking problem) but really liked the parts where the narrative voice switched to his father, uncle and mother (Orkidah).

Rarely enough to keep the experience special does the right book hit you at the right time and it feels like magic.Martyr! was both foreign and familiar, cringe and comfort, fantastical and realistic, and reading it is a memorable moment in time.It's an immigrant story, a generational family trauma, a college novel, an addict survival tale, a LBGTQ+ struggle, and country and city mouse journey, while wrestling with politics, art, love, poetry, writing, creating, mental and emotional health, dreaming, and magical realism. It's got NYC and Brooklyn! It's got everything you could ask for and more that you'd never think of asking it.My advice and while I'll refrain from sharing any plot or thoughts on that ending, is to just open it up and start reading... let it take you somewhere.It brought back coming of age feelings that I haven't experience on paper since Leaving The Atocha Station by Ben Lerner and is already a book I'm buying for others, pressing it into their hands, saying give yourself over to this, trust this book, and it will reward you with riches - then come talk to me about it.It's a book you want to read again right after finishing it. It's that special gift, that rare book, that you've already seen everywhere yet still manages to live up to and earn its hype. Read it.

Not an easy read, but well worth your time…should be read a bit at a time, so the reader can ponder the prose…