Mostly what Cyrus felt was empty. A crushing hollowness, which governed him. He should have died on the plane with his mother, but he’d been left home. With his father now dead, Cyrus had no parents left to worry over him. What was left of his life had no intrinsic meaning, he knew, since such meaning could only be shaped in relation to other people.
page 54, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Table of Contents
Preamble
Martyr by Kaveh Akbar bears some similarities to the book I reviewed just before it, James. They are both literary fiction novels that came out in 2024 that I started hearing about through various book related channels. Both are quite popular with high hold counts at the Toronto Public Library system – currently at 234 holds with 124 copies. I didn’t plan to read them one after the other, it was just coincidence in the way the holds arrived.
This book’s title makes it unique, I am quite sure this is the first time I have seen and read a book with a title with an exclamation mark in it. Martyr! So exclaims the book’s title. I’ll be referring to it as Martyr without the exclamation mark to avoid having to do grammar gymnastics with my sentences.
This is Kaveh Akbar‘s debut novel, he is a poet so going into this I was expecting something poetic, something a little dramatic perhaps. The description of the book indicated a main character who is an Iranian immigrant, newly sober and also a poet – I reckon I was in for a bit of author self-insert fiction. I did get that but also a whole lot of emotions I was not expecting.
Let’s get into it.
The Book
Martyr follows the story of one Cyrus Shams, Iranian immigrant, newly sober, orphaned as he tries to write a book about martyrs. The journey leads him to New York City and a painter terminally ill with cancer living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.
Structure
The book is mostly from Cyrus’ POV, however it occasionally switches to the POV of one of the characters from the book – his dad, his uncle, his mom, his friend, the terminally ill artist. These non-Cyrus POVs are from the past and the characters are expounding on something that happened to them. The book also has dream sequences, where Cyrus’ will have conversations with various…figures – Rumi, Cyrus’ imaginary brother Beethoven Shams, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar etc.
“How much of the people’s kindness had to do with their own sense of responsibility, their obsession with their own goodness? Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about the ‘the politics of personal exoneration…'” ​ ​
(Cyrus’ Dream) Conversation between Beethoven Shams and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, ibid
Kareem laughed. ​ ​”Wait wait wait. I cannot continue this conversation with you if you’re going to stand there quoting Ta-Nehisi Coates at me,” Kareem said. “Look at yourself. Look at what’s happening to you.”
Unlike James, I quite liked the dream sequences in this book. I think that is because they felt connected to the overarching narrative and were written in a way that I found fun to read. The conversation with Rumi is especially hilarious, Rumi sounding like a zoomer in Cyrus’ dreams is fun to contrast with who Rumi was. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar laughing at Beethoven Shams quoting Ta-Nehisi Coates is funny to me as someone who likes Coates’ writing a lot.
Themes
Thematically, there is a lot happening in this book. Addiction, being an immigrant, PTSD, death of a parent & grief, depression & suicidal ideation, the power of art – these are the ones I listed in my notes while reading the book. The themes that resonated with me the most personally were the ones about Cyrus’ depression and his grief over the loss of his mother.
I genuinely was not expecting to be hit like a truck by this book. I felt myself really connecting with Cyrus and his depressed self, trying to find meaning in life through the creation of art, through the concept of martyrdom and death. Depression is something I am quite familiar with, it is something I have dealt with on and off over the past decade or so and I found the way it was portrayed in this book to be quite realistic.
As someone who lost his father nearly five years ago now, Cyrus describing his day of grief over the loss of his mother was something I felt in my soul. Cyrus describing how he just went back to school the next day after his day of crying his eyes out like it was just another day also felt very very real. I wrote some thoughts on death and grief last year, if you are interested in reading more about it.
“Of course,” said Orkideh. “It seems very American to expect grief to change something. Like a token you cash in. A formula. Grieve x amount, receive y amount in comfort. Work a day in the grief mines and get paid in tickets to the company store.”
page 183, ibid
Fundamentally, I found that Martyr explores its various themes in a nuanced, heartfelt and genuine way using a delicately balanced combination of absurdist humor and serious dialogue. I don’t think the book would have worked as well if it leaned too much into either the humor or the serious dialogue.
Conclusions
Martyr is one hell of a book. It is well written, with the right balance between humor and seriousness, intriguing and complex characters and a plot with just the right amount of meandering. And more importantly, its exploration of some of its heavier themes had a strong emotional impact on me.
I think book is one that will be on my books of the year list for 2025 and I may end up buying a physical copy of it for my collection. I usually don’t end my fiction book reviews with a quote from the book but this book is very quotable so I’ll leave y’all with this quote.
What I want to say is that I was happy. Not always, not even mostly. But I did know real, deep joy. Maybe everyone gets a certain amount to use up over a lifetime, and I just used my lifetime’s allotment especially quickly with Leila. But I don’t think it was a tragedy, my life. Tragedies are relentless. Nobody could ask for more than what I’ve had.
Orkideh, page 294, ibid
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