April
18
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Kids, this is a complex one. A quote on the front cover promises “Elegant, dizzying, playful” but I think “Dark and difficult” would have been more apt. With themes of suicide, addiction, racial tension and grief, it is not exactly a breezy, crowd-pleaser, but please read on if you dare.
Martyr! tells the story of Cyrus Shams, a young, Iranian American poet and former addict living in Indiana who wants to die. There are a few things contributing to his mood. Firstly, he feels completely alone, having lost his mother in a plane crash when he was a baby and his father when he left for college. His only other living relative is a housebound Uncle living in Dubai with post-traumatic stress. Cyrus also feels perpetually out of place. He loathes his Alcoholics Anonymous sessions, is resentful of America’s ignorance of the Middle East and is awkward about his relationship with his male roommate and lover.
Beyond miserable, Cyrus becomes fixated on the concept of martyrdom and sets about writing a book on the topic and ending his life “with meaning”. As part of his research, he travels to New York to meet a terminally ill Iranian artist who is living her last days at the Brookyn Museum. They strike up a friendship and things develop from there.
Martyr! is Kaveh Akbar’s first novel and he doesn’t hold back. As if the plot isn’t enough, what makes it particularly ambitious is the irony he uses to explore how easily someone can lose perspective on life, death and love. It’s also ambitious in its format and references to real life, historic events.
Martyr! gets big points for effort from me. I admire the writer’s skill and vision, but just wasn’t as moved as so many other critics seem to have been. Is it too late for me to add the word “affected” to the front cover?
And that’s my 2 cents worth.
Readhead 