Review by nelliecubed - Martyr!

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nelliecubed 's review for:

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

5.0

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

MARTYR! by Kaveh Akbar is a novel about a young Iranian-American living in the Midwest. Cyrus is a poet, an addict, and someone contemplating the reason for life and death.

Cyrus moved to the USA when he was a baby. His mother died when the airplane she was on was shot down "accidentally" by the US military. His father took them to Indiana to start anew and to escape the endless wars and desperation of their lives.

Cyrus struggles to find both a reason to live and a justification to die. At one point he talks about the vanity of being able to ponder suicide. He becomes obsessed with the idea of martyrdom, and if he could go out as a martyr, he would know why he was put on earth.

The book has chapters of what life was like for his parents. The story of his mother's unhappiness with her marriage and role as a mother unravels as we see her struggle with the passions she has. Cyrus's father traded his life as a widower in Iran for that of a single parent working at a chicken processing factory in a land where no one looked like him or his son.

We also get glimpses of the book Cyrus wants to create - poems and passages about martyrs, death, and life. He wants his art to be important and meaningful, but he has yet to be published.

The book hits an unexpected curve when Cyrus travels to New York to interview an artist living her final days in a Brooklyn art museum. As he struggles with the truths revealed to him, he finally understands the meaning of his life and death - love.

The last full chapter is perhaps one of the most remarkable pieces of writing l've read in years. With passages like, "All those severe poets talking big about the wages of sin all the time," Zee added, "but nobody ever brought up the wages of virtue. The toll of trying really really hard to be good in a game that's totally rigged against goodness."

This is a book that should be savored and read more than once. It's hard to imagine this is a debut novel. I have seen this book reviewed as "funny" and there are a few passages of humor, but this is a deep study about coming to terms with the trauma that makes us human.

Content Warnings